The Unpostables
by Divinion
Summary: Divinion's dump of all stories which will never be finished and never be polished. Longer than a drabbles, less than perfection, lots of different stories which you may enjoy more than I did!
1. Contents

Hey Fairy Tail Fans!

This is the dumping ground for my unfinished and unedited stories. Reviews are welcome, but everything that you see below is never going to be finished, edited, polished or whatever, so please don't ask for more or point out mistakes. Most of them were fully plotted and planned, however, so if you really want to know what happens next or you have any burning questions about loopholes etc, ask and I may be able to tell you.

These stories are not my pride and glory to say the least. If you want to review that's great, but these are not written to be particularly _good_ , I just thought that some of you may them and in theory that's better than rotting in my computer.

Every 'chapter' is a different story, which are detailed below:

 **Grace and Summer**

 **Genre** ; Comedy, Adventure, Gratsu

 **Summary** ; Grace and Summer have been jumping from parallel world to parallel world when they meet their genderbendered equivalents, realising quickly that they are painfully ill-equipped at working together. Can the Ice Maker and Fire Dragon Slayer help Natsu and Gray finally perform a Unison Raid?

 **Characters;** Gray, Natsu, Grace(OC), Summer(OC), Lucy, Erza, Happy

 **A Missing Minute**

 **Genre** ; Angst, Angst, More Angst, Angst

 **Summary** ; The Grand Magical Games are over, the Eclipse Gate has been destroyed, the dragons have disappeared and now everyone has to pick up the pieces of the warzone and count those they have lost.

 **Characters;** Literally almost everyone in the entire FT Universe. Mostly Natsu, Lucy, Wendy.

 **My Life and Yours**

 **Genre** ; Adventure/Hurt/Comfort/Friendship

 **Summary** ; A prediction story from after Manga 516.

 **Characters;** Natsu, Gray, Erza, Wendy, Zeref, Mavis, Lucy, Happy, Charlie...

 **Fairy's Regret**

 **Genre** ; Angst, Tragedy

 **Summary** ; Members of Fairy Tail accidentally time travel back to the day that Lisanna was 'killed' and decide to change fate, but can they deal with the new consequences? Inspired by 'S-Class'.

 **Characters;** Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Lisanna, Happy, Cana


	2. Grace and Summer

**Name: Grace and Summer**

 **Genre; Comedy/Adventure/Gratsu**

 **Background; This was the second fanfiction I'd ever made, while I was just pouring ideas onto paper without much caring for quality of writing and still keeping it fairly lighthearted. I said _fairly_. Rereading this made me seriously miss these two characters, who also happen to make a cameo appearance in Our World of Zeref. I actually realised that I've already broken my own rule and this story DOES have a ending, but this was a quick 'alternative ending' as I knew I wouldn't have the time or effort to really finish it and it didn't explore half of what I wanted it to.**

* * *

Prologue

The sun was shining brightly on the far corner of the continent and it was beautifully warm. There was a sense of accomplishment as they travelled homeward. "I can't believe we actually got a full reward!" Lucy said, punching her tiny fists into the air with a huge grin across her face.

"It was only because that building we destroyed was going to be broken anyway…" Happy reminded her.

"I don't care!" Lucy grinned, excited as she thought of all the things that she could use her new jewel. Of course, rent came first, but if she was lucky the celestial key in the window of the pawn shop would still be there and with a little feminine charm she could scramble together enough jewel to have it by the end of the month. That was, of course, assuming that there wouldn't be some other costly repairs that needed her money. "I'm just glad that we helped that old man."

"And we helped the workers demolish that building" Natsu chimed in happily.

"Um, I don't think that they really appreciated that, Natsu…" Lucy mentioned to him.

Erza stopped, looking behind herself. She stared into the forests around her, her eyes sparkling as she saw a sudden flurry of black birds fly into the sky squawking loudly.

"Hey Erza, what's up?" Natsu questioned, stopping himself and looking back at her.

She narrowed her eyes, staring back. "I thought I heard something…" she said slowly, her fingers itching to hold the hilt of her sword again. Under her armour she was overheating but still she refused to take it off, and the sounds around her only made her crave more metal to protect herself. "We should be cautious. There's something very large moving in this forest."

Chapter 1

Summer put her hands behind her head, staring up at the beautiful sunshine that was beaming down at them all. "Hm, everything looks normal enough…" she said, soaking in the pleasant heat and the smells around her. The leaves were rustling gently around them, wind blowing through her cherry blossom hair and for a moment everything felt normal. "You could almost pretend its home, couldn't you?"

Grace looked up, feeling more uncomfortable in the heat than her hot-headed companion but still enjoying the brightness and the way that the forest welcomed them. A small thin smile appeared on her lips. "For a moment, maybe," she admitted, wanting very much to believe it.

"I wonder what will make this world different…" Summer thought out loud, trying to notice any tiny differences. "What if in this world everyone has dragon wings?! Or scales? Or octopus heads?!" she gasped "What if this world has no fire?"

Grace didn't even bother to roll her eyes, instead trying to take some humour from the eccentric ideas. "I guess the only way we'll find out is by actually finding someone. Can you smell anything? Hear anything?" she asked, stopping and trying to gage her position.

Summer sniffed the air, concentrating. "I dunno. Everything smells weird here. I can hear… Screaming?"

"Screaming?" Grace asked, staring in the same direction that Summer was.

In a sudden burst of sound, the forest opened. A huge metal creature loomed, a sword three times his own weight crushing effortlessly through the trees and greens. A small but curved blond woman rushed out in front of it, narrowly dodging the sword and jumping out of the way of falling trees. Though her actions seemed less than intentional, there was a skill to the way that she narrowly avoided each potentially fatal blow. She screamed, scrambling back and trying to get back to her feet as she was knocked aside.

Summer stepped forwards, crunching her knuckles.

"What do you think you're doing?" Grace asked her coldly.

Summer looked at her, a little shocked. "She's in trouble," she said, looking back at the huge creature that was looming above the woman, watching in amazement as the woman threw out her whip and pulled herself away once again at the last moment.

"This isn't our world," Grace reminded her. "We shouldn't be interfering."

Summer jumped out, a determined grin on her face. It wasn't going to stop her, and she knew that Grace would never take the side-line if Summer was jumping into a fight, especially after this particular enemy. True enough, Grace was quickly at her side, and the attention of the monster was straight to the pair. "Hey dirtbag!" Summer called out loudly, her voice carrying over the crashing trees. "You finished with your appetiser? Because we're the main course!"

The blond scrambled backwards, looking at the two in front of her. There was something strangely familiar about them, something that she couldn't bring herself to think. But there was something about the way they stood, the bright pink hair and the heat that resonated around her, and the slender young woman with short black hair and a cold look in her eyes. The monster had their attention too, a new fuel inside of him as he raised his sword up high. The pair looked at each other and nodded, and the air changed. The cold and the heat grew together, moulding and twisting. Flames were on the pink haired girl's hands, and as the dark haired woman pushed her hands forwards a tube of blue ice glimmered. The fire mage punched into the tube, her flames spiralling against the ice, twisting faster and faster, growing wilder. "Fire Cannon!" they both shouted in unison, as the blaze knocked back against the monster and sent its metallic head flying far away from its body, revealing only circuits and electricity inside.

The body crashed to the ground and the pair barely looked at each other as they fist bumped.

"I… I…." Lucy's eyes were wide, staring at the two figures in front of her. The pieces were somehow slotting together and making even less sense than before. The pink haired woman with Dragon Slayer Magic and the dark haired woman – who had at some point lost her shirt and was now only standing in a black bra – with ice maker magic. Her words stumbled even more, her heart racing as she saw the fairytail marks – a blue one on the left breast and a red one on the left arm.

"Is she alright?" Grace asked, standing over her.

Summer crouched beside her, giving a wide and friendly smile to her. "Maybe she's just in shock. You're safe now. I'm Summer, and this is Grace. What's your name?"

"L-L-Lucy…" she said, her heart thudding so loud in her ears she could barely hear. Summer? Grace? "Thank you," she said, holding out her hand for her to shake and bowing her head to hide her confused blush.

Summer looked at the mark on her hand curiously. "Hey, you're in Fairy Tail too?" he said, taking her hand and looking at it. "Hey come to think of it Luke has a mark just like this…"

"Lucy!" Natsu ran over, bursting through the bushes.

"Natsu!" Lucy gasped, not sure if this made more or less sense than before. The two were obviously different people, and all the rest had clearly been some strange coincidences. She let herself be relieved by that fact, but it didn't last long.

Natsu stared at the other pink haired woman standing in front of him, but to him all he saw was a Fairy Tail symbol planted on a woman that he had never seen before. "Who the hell are you?!" he asked, ready to defend the honour of his guild against what looked very clearly like a charlatan. "And why are you wearing the Fairy Tail mark?"

Summer looked shocked, but the shock quickly fell into a smile. She was working things out quickly, far quicker than her male equivalent though this was only due to past experiences. "Natsu, huh?" she asked. "I make a cute guy."

Grace grabbed Summer's arm quickly. "This is why we don't get involved!" she scolded her, beginning to drag her backwards. She frowned deeply, thinking back to every other world that they had been in. At first she had been like Summer, eager to see every new world and every version that they had ever been. They had all been very similar, though there had been the odd blinding difference none of them had been anywhere near as extreme as this. Though part of her was curious too, she knew the pain that would follow in their wake…

Summer let herself get dragged away even as she kicked against the ground. She had not learnt her lesson, she had taken each world as a new adventure and had been waiting for an opportunity like this to arise. "Look, Grace, I told you that there would be a version of you in this world!" she told her, feeling Grace's hands go noticeably colder at the words. "And is that Ethan? Wow his boobs look amazing. And that must be Luke!"

Grace dropped Summer in the most undignified of ways, staring back at the group. She gritted her teeth, watching all of them carefully and trying to clear her thoughts. This world was so different... Something about it made her feel she would regret stopping in that moment.

Chapter 2

"Wow…. She eats fire too?" Lucy remarked, staring at Natsu and Summer as they raced each other to finish as much as they could of meals made both out of fire and real food. Their appetite seemed equal and devouring.

Erza looked back at Grace, realising that Summer was probably not the easiest to get information from while she had a face full of food. "So you say that you come from an alternative dimension?" she questioned, trying to find logic to their confused statements.

Grace nodded as she poured down her drink. "We're searching for one particular dimension, where the cracks appeared from."

"Cracks?" Lucy asked, tilting her head to the side.

"That's how we got here," Summer said, or at least it could be only guessed that's what she said through a mouth full of food.

"We've been travelling through the cracks for some time to find where they're coming from," Grace explained. "They threaten every world, every time, and they're only getting worse. If we don't find the cause soon then we could all be in danger."

Summer swallowed her slab of meat hard. "We've got a handheld gizmo that tells us if we're getting closer to that world. Hey, how close is this world?" he asked.

"Hm? Oh, yeah," Grace muttered to herself, going to her pocket. She almost jumped out of her skin, bouncing out of her seat. "How long have I been naked?!" she demanded.

Summer shrugged, "I dunno, since the last crack I guess," she said absently going to get another portion.

Grace grabbed her by the scarf that was wrapped around her torso. "Why wouldn't you tell me that, idiot?!" she cursed loudly.

"I'm not the one who decided to get naked in the middle of nowhere!" Summer yelled back.

"No you're the idiot who told me to put it in my jacket pocket!" Grace shouted. "Why the hell couldn't it have gone in your stupid oversized backpack?!"

Happy sighed. "These guys really are Gray and Natsu…"

They both stopped and blinked at Happy. "Um… why is that blue cat talking?" Grace asked.

Happy looked incredibly hurt. "You've only just noticed me…?" he asked, his voice wobbling.

"Huh? You don't have Happy in your world?" Natsu asked curiously finishing his firestick.

"Oh I guess that makes sense…" Lucy thought out loud. "The exceeds are from Edolas which is another dimension so I guess they're not necessarily a part of our normal world."

"I want one!" Summer exclaimed. "Happy, right? How did you learn to talk? How come you're blue? Where did you come from?" she asked excitedly, sitting in front of the exceed and continuing to ask every question that she could possibly think of.

Erza couldn't help but smile as she saw Summer and Happy talking, seeing that the two of them were already starting to bond and there was little reason not to. Lucy even offered Grace a new shirt, which she slipped into quickly, still looking annoyed at herself though she did laugh as she saw Lucy offered Gray one too, him too realising too late he was without one. Erza could only predict the sheer carnage that would no doubt follow having two Gray's and two Natsu's, and thought that this would truly be the calm before the storm.

"Etha-Erza," Grace spoke again to her, "In our world, Leigh made the device to test the works. I know it might be a long-shot but there may be a chance that his equivalent can make one in this world. I hate to ask this, but we could do with your help. If you could take us to the guild, then we can be on our way." She gave a small smile, "The sooner I can be back to one Summer, the better"

Erza nodded in agreement. "I think that sounds reasonable. And I must admit Natsu and Gray are a handful on their own."

Lucy smiled, looking between the four of them. "I'm sure the rest of the guild would be interested in meeting you too. Though there's a few that you should probably avoid…" she thought, imagining how awkward the leeching gazes of some of the older men from the guild would be. Awkward, but hilarious.

Chapter 3

The road was long ahead, and there was little time to waste. Even to get to the local train-station would take over a day's walk, to which Summer and Natsu loudly yelled in defiance.

"We'll walk," Natsu told them all, folding his arms across his chest as he walked forwards, not even wanting to consider getting on transportation again.

"It would take weeks for you to walk," Gray pointed out. "And you'd still need a boat across the river." In truth, it would have been possible to get across the river, but the detour alone would have taken over a month on foot and he wasn't prepared to even offer that as a solution. The trainline ran straight across the river on a high steel bridge, though it was said even those usually not afraid of heights or travel sick would struggle with the journey. That, too, he decided it best not to mention.

"Then we'll just bounce through the cracks," Summer suggested. "Move from world to world until we eventually get there."

"Would that really work?" Natsu asked her curiously.

Summer shrugged. "I got here without any vehicles so it must be possible. I'd say it's worth a try."

"No, it wouldn't work," Grace pointed out. "You have no map, no directions, no way of communicating or telling if you're nearer or farther than this world. Besides, there aren't any cracks around here."

Summer looked around herself, as if to make sure that there were definitely no cracks in the dimension. She would have known long before looking, however, as there was no mistaking the carnage that followed the splits in the seams of the worlds. She had to reluctantly admit that she was right, although she would never say it out loud. In looking, however, her nose perked up, trying to locate the direction.

Natsu noticed too, looking back and stopping. "One of those robot guys, right?" he asked. "This one's mine." He grinned, crunching his knuckles and letting them burst into an excited flame.

"By yourself?" Summer questioned, a little surprised.

"No no," Grace said, a wider smile growing across her face. "Don't stop him. If the man wants to show off and beat the Centurion by himself, please be my guest. It can be a little test of strength: boys vs girls."

Natsu grinned, looking between the two of them. "Clearly our world is stronger if you underestimate me like that," he said, stepping forwards.

"Yeah but what about the-" Summer's mouth was quickly covered by Grace's hand, stopping all words coming out of her mouth. However, it didn't stop her trying to talk through mumbles and arm gestures.

"Don't give the opposition tips, dumbass," Grace whispered harshly to Summer. "Go on, Natsu, we'll be here to save your ass if you need it."

Natsu walked forwards closer to the sounds of heavy footsteps, which carried over the entire forest now and shook the trees with every stomp. "You seem confident…" Erza commented, watching Grace to see if there was a truly malicious intent. She had believed this was a version of Gray and Natsu, but that didn't automatically qualify them with the same morals or ethical code. There was clearly some difference in opinion between them, though in a typical Natsu way Summer was staying back and respecting Natsu's decision to go forwards with the attack alone, even as the huge creature appeared through the trees. "He's huge…" Erza also said, her eyes wide at the monster. The way that he held the huge sword showed her that there was a rippling sense of strength, and the magical power in front of her hummed through the air.

Unfazed, the Dragon Slayer looked up at the huge creature with an excited grin on his face. The bigger they were, the harder they would fall, and nothing made it more important than a test of strength. Though he wasn't sure how he would show he had beaten the female Gray he knew that he had to make his victory look good enough for a clear result. There was no holding back, and knowing that he was only against circuits and wires made that even easier. He pulled his legs apart, taking in a deep breath and shouting out his roaring flame attack.

"Oh, bad start," Grace commented, leaning back against a tree and watching casually.

"Shut up. Come on Natsu you can do it!" Summer called out.

"Just what team are you on?!"

The monster tilted its head back, breastplate shining in the glimmering flames. The red fire licked against its metal, barely touching him before spiralling and twisting into the very centre, where a huge red gem glowed brightly. The flames sunk into the gem and disappeared.

"It… ate my fire?!" Natsu questioned, staring back at it blankly. The sword crashed down and Natsu jumped out of its way. The dark metal blade slashed through the earth like it was hot butter, a hot hissing in its wake. Natsu jumped on the blade, running up to the Centurion's helmet and bringing his flaming fist.

The metal didn't buckle or break, and the flames did nothing against the toughened metal. The Centurion's eyes glowed a deep red, a flame deep inside its oversized helmet and a calculated anger as it lifted its free hand and threw Natsu deep into the forest.

"It has a flame resistance and physical attacks don't seem to have any affect…" Gray realised as he watched, finally now knowing exactly why Grace had been so quick to mock Natsu's confidence. He smiled to himself, knowing that he too would have probably done the same thing. "I wouldn't underestimate Natsu. He'll find a way around that."

Summer grinned and leaned forwards, trying to find Natsu buried in the bushes. "Come on, Natsu, you can do this!"

Grace smiled knowingly, watching Summer's enthusiasm gladly. "I'm sure he can."

Chapter 4

Natsu panted, lifting his head slowly back at the monster. This thing was tough, far tougher than he had expected. He knew he couldn't possibly lose to this thing, and giving up would be no better. No, especially not when the female Gray was watching him with the smug look across her face. Not when his own female equivalent was waiting anxiously for him to come up with some miracle. Not when his friends were looking at him to defend the strength of their world. He pushed his foot into the ground, the fire around him sparkling brightly with new determination.

"You know you can tag in a team member if you want…" Grace suggested, almost hoping that he would take the bait for his own dignity.

"This is just embarrassing…" even Happy had to admit.

The fires crackled and sparkled around Natsu, the bursts of red and orange now blending with a hissing and fizzing of yellow lightning bolts. He couldn't let down his friends, his guild, he couldn't be an embarrassment. With a loud yell he struck down the Centurion, hitting straight into the red jewel on its chest. It cracked, and shattered.

"He did it!" Summer exclaimed.

"Finally," Grace smiled, unable to hide the sense of accomplishment she somehow shared in the victory as the monster crashed to the ground.

Natsu stood, a little wobbly on his feet, but staring back at the huge monster he had defeated. It had easily been one of the most challenging battles he'd ever endured, and he had beaten it. He wasn't entirely sure how he'd managed it, but somehow his final move had taken down the monster in one strike while before he hadn't even been able to make a dint. He could only smile and take his victory. "I win," he told them, knowing that he had not given up and they had no way to claim this from him now.

"You beat it…" Grace said slowly, her hands deep in her pockets. "Except, hm…. Lucy, how long did it take us to beat one of these?"

Lucy looked down, realising that her words would probably hurt Natsu. "One hit…"

Natsu's win had come crashing around him. It had felt like days of fighting this thing, his fists were aching from striking against unmovable metal, his ribs hurt after being flown around like a rag doll, and his magic levels felt painfully low. And somehow he wouldn't have won from the second round. "One….?" He repeated.

Summer looked rather proud of herself as well, even if she did offer a bit of an olive branch. "The first time is always the hardest. They're actually pretty harmless once you work out their weakness."

"Huh?" Natsu looked confused, trying to work out what had been the glaring advantage that he had taken at the last minute. He thought back, to all of the attacks he'd placed, and what had been the difference in the last one. "You mean electricity? Because it's a robot, right?"

Grace stood on top of the lifeless hulk that was the fierce machine. She pulled up the fragments of the gem inside, watching as it shifted from red to blue in her hands. "Any elemental magic would have managed. It takes whatever element is thrown at it and triples the power straight back. If you confuse the circuit with two different elements at once, it has little defence."

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense!" Lucy said, thinking back to the attack she had watched. "You and Summer combined your powers with that fire and ice canon. Natsu's attack with fire and electricity combined worked."

"Yeah, it worked eventually," Grace said, jumping down and brushing the dust from her hands. "How much energy did that take? If you hadn't been such a stubborn fool and just let Gray help you that thing could have been down in thirty seconds."

"Hey, I beat it didn't I?!" Natsu challenged back. "I didn't need yours or Gray's or anyone's help!" he exclaimed, fire coming from his mouth in outrage.

"You beat up a baby one and you're basically spent," Grace folded her arms against her chest. "When the cracks open these things will pour out and this world will be covered in these monsters, some of them three times the size of this runt. What will you do then? How will you protect your friends and your guild?"

Chapter 5

"How did we end up in this situation?"

This was the question on everyone's mind, in both groups. Nastu, Summer, Lucy and, of course, Happy were on one team, with Erza, Grace and Gray on the other. The logic had been flawed from the start, though it had come from truth. Everyone knew that Gray and Natsu would struggle greatly to manage to work together to use Unison Raid, and as Lucy pointed out there were wizards who had tried their entire lives to accomplish the feat and never succeeded. So they separated, in the hopes of becoming stronger and somehow achieve their goals.

Lucy was left thoroughly confused as she sat cross-legged in front of Natsu and Summer as they struck blow against one another, matching each of their attacks and power perfectly and reaching very little. "I don't understand how becoming stronger will make you better at using Unison Raid…" She thought out loud, hugging Happy.

"Oh yeah?" Summer questioned, diving out of the way of a blow to the face as Natsu did the exact same manoeuvre. "What would you even know about Unison Raid?"

Lucy pouted, annoyed at the implication. "I've done it before, you know. Well, Aquarius and Juvia…"

"Yeah, and those two are really strong," Natsu told her. "Not as strong as me. I don't think. I should ask Juvia for a fight when we get back."

"Oh my god a male Aquarius sounds pretty scary…" Summer thought out loud, jumping out of the way rather than dodging as the thought made her a little distracted.

"Um, Aquarius is still female in this world…" Lucy said quietly. That got her thinking more. "If the celestial spirits can travel between worlds then maybe they would be the same between dimensions…"

"Yeah, I think that's why those Centurion guys don't like Celestial wizards," Summer thought out loud, pulling her feet square and conjuring two rippling wings from her shoulder blades. The giant red wings flapped, sparkling through the sky and lifting her into the air.

Lucy's eyes went wide. "Are they…. Wings?!" She asked, letting Happy pull himself out of her arms and jump onto Natsu's back, evening the score with his own wings lifting him up.

"I really need to get myself a Happy…" Summer said, in awe as she stared at how carelessly he flew through the sky, swerving out of the way of a fireball.

Natsu grinned, realising that he would have full advantage here. While she could fly, she was draining huge amounts of magical power to do so. He could conserve all of his, using Happy's Magic instead of his own. He chanelled his power into a mighty roar, which she pulled her wings around herself and soaked in all of his fire.

She smiled, pulling her wings back and thinking that she had full advantage here. Happy was a completely different person, and while they were incredibly in sync there would always be a delay while she could move her wings as she liked. That, and her wings were fireproof, and with that she threw back her own flames towards him. "Sorry Happy!" She called out.

"Happy, are you ok?" He asked Happy quickly, receiving a determined nod. "That's a cheap trick!" Natsu yelled at her as they dodged out of the way at the last minute.

"So is using Happy to carry you around!" Summer pointed out. "Just think of all of the spells that come from having fire wings. Freaking. Dragon. Fire. Wings. How awesome are these?!" She said, spinning around to show them off. "It makes me feel like a real dragon!"

"Oh yeah?" Natsu grinned. "Then you should be able to handle this!"

"Guys I really don't think this is helping…" Lucy complained.

Later that night, as arranged the two teams met back again. As Gray, Grace and Erza arrived couldn't help watch the two Dragon Slayers lying on the ground, looking exhausted and barely able to lift their own heads. They could only look at Lucy and Happy in confusion as the two explained "This is why they don't eat their own fire… Or each other's…."

They sat, Grace and Gray equally exhausted and collapsing down, stretching aching muscles and trying to gather their strength back. Erza too looked a little sweaty, though she had a content smile on her face. She had obviously ran the two ice wizards as hard as she could, obviously excited by the idea of a training session and the chance to put them through their paces.

"I still don't understand how any of this is supposed to help…" Lucy despaired. "Unison Raid isn't about the strength of the wizard, it's about combining the powers together."

Erza, though a little disappointed that her good work may be coming to waste, had to disagree. "From what I've heard of the rare spell, it takes incredible wizards to pull it off, but I've only ever seen it with complimentary wizard powers, like Rogue and Sting."

"But aren't light and shadow the opposite…?" Happy asked, not quite understanding.

"So are fire and ice…" Lucy said thoughtfully, mostly to herself. "But Sting and Rogue have been working closely with their magic since they were young. Well, I suppose Natsu and Gray have in a round about way too…" She said, trying to find really were the problems lay. "Unfortunately, from what I've read, it comes down mostly to how compatible the people are."

"Then we might as well just give up now…" Happy said slowly.

"No way," Natsu sat up, obviously pouring all of his remaining energy into his last defiance. "We're gonna do this. We've gotta prove whatever those girls can do, we can do even better. If that's what it takes, that'll be easy, we'll just have to work together."

Erza and Lucy blinked, looking at Natsu like he was saying he was going to destroy the moon. "I don't think that'll be so easy…" Lucy replied.

"Aye…" Happy agreed.

"Don't underestimate us," Gray warned them both. "If me and Natsu can put our heads together then we'll be unstoppable."

Chapter 6

They were fighting by the end of the night. All four of them.

Even the fierceness of Erza couldn't break their arguments for more than a few short moments, the first words coming out of any of their mouths charging into a multisided battle that rumbled through the entire forest. One world vs the other, ice vs fire, girls vs boys and even more combinations that no one could have foreseen. There were were fists and words thrown around equally, regardless of their exhaustion. Even the night couldn't stop them, and they were eventually thrown into all four corners of the camp in an awkward silence.

After very little sleep, Erza and Lucy watched over them with a dark glare. The moment of peace as they all had their mouths filled with food did little to recover their lost rest.

"We really can't manage all of this all the way to Fairy Tail…" Lucy thought to herself, thinking of how good this idea had started at first. "There is no way that these will be able to get along, never mind perform unison raid…"

Gray swallowed quickly, quick to defend themselves. "We told you already we can do it. Give us an enemy."

"You'll be more likely to kill yourself than combine your magic!" Lucy complained.

"While I do have faith that the two of you will find a way…" Erza told them, looking over the four of them and wondering how one half could work together and the others couldn't, "I think it'll take far more than you realise…"

"We have a plan," Summer exclaimed confidently, standing quickly.

"Where did you find the time to get a plan through all that fighting…?" Happy had to ask.

Grace stood too, by Summer's side. "Lucy, Erza, Happy, will you be alright if you go to the guild ahead of us? We still have some training to do."

"I'm gonna get Gray all to myself," Summer grinned.

"Do you have to say that in such a creepy way…?" Gray had to ask, pulling back away from her.

Grace turned to Natsu, looking over him and trying not to be too dismayed by the material she had to work with. "Natsu, you're with me."

Lucy looked between all of them and the different teams that they would be in. The pairings were all swapped around but now there would be no one there to protect them from themselves. While she hadn't seen much outward distaste between the couples of each world the concept was still strange.

"I see," Erza said with a small nod, agreeing to the plan. "By pairing separately you can inadverately change the way that you view each other, as if through a strangers eyes. I think it's a brilliant plan."

"I just thought it was a cool idea," Summer admitted, shrugging as she put her backpack on. "We'll be back at the guild not long after you guys, we're just taking a detour. I can't wait to see everyone gender-bended."

Grace smiled, imagining the faces of those that she loved and had not seen for so long in a completely different way. She wasn't sure if it would take away the homesickness or make it worse, but either way it would offer some distraction and a nice place to take some rest. "If you can ask and see if anyone has a way of finding the inter-dimensional rifts before we arrive then we'll be grateful."

Erza nodded. "I'm sure Levvy will be able to find something."

"Are you sure you'll be alright…?" Lucy had to ask, some fear growing inside her as she saw the new pairings together.

"Yeah, I've got a good feeling about this," Natsu said, his thumbs up and ready for action.

"Come on, Gray, our teams gonna do the best unison raid," Summer said, jumping up and starting to run as fast as her legs could carry her, leaving Gray to chase after her and Grace and Natsu to panic run in the opposite direction.

Chapter 7

Grace's breath grew shorter and more strained with every step. She was good at hiding her weakness and doing all that she could to hide her strength, and had she been any normal wizard she would have been suffering a mile before this. But here the heat was reaching unbearable temperatures as they walked into the mouth of the volcano.

Natsu watched in wide eyed wonder at the bubbling heat all around him, wondering what things would be edible and what would leave him sore. He still felt a little tired from eating Summer's flames, which while they hadn't been overly harmful to him had been a very quick way of transferring powers between the two of them until nothing was left. Food was good, but not as satisfying as real flames. The warmth reminded him of Igneel's warm belly, of running around in the bright sunshine of better days, or a burning battle energy coursing through his body. "Why are we here?" He asked curiously.

"You want to fight me, right?" She asked him, finally stopping and looking back at him, drops of sweat already running across her face. "After that attempt at the Centurion I thought I'd give you myself a handicap."

The idea of a fight excited him, but he was extremely offended. "I'd beat you anywhere ice bitch!" He shouted at her, dropping his bags where he stood. "Fight me fair!"

She pushed her short black hair out of her face, trying not to focus on her straining breathing and the painful heat. The ice inside of her was all she needed now, but looking at Natsu she could see even he was sweating. "Alright. If you beat me here, I'll give you a fair chance back on an even plain. Your magic vs mine."

Natsu nodded and pushed his fists together. If this was what it would take to test himself against the Gray alter-ego then he would push himself as hard as possible. "OK," he agreed. "Don't think I'll hold back because you're a girl."

"I won't hold back even if you are a guy," she told him, pulling her fist against her palm and feeling the temperature drop, flooding her back with new energy.

-.

Summer looked up at through the icy sleet, covering her eyes with her arm as they threatened to slash against her skin and eyes. The storm made everything more exciting and dynamic, but she grinned through chattering teeth. Even Gray kept his clothes on, trying to look for the landmarks within the blizzard. "Where did you say that we were going?" He asked her again.

"Here," Summer answered truthfully, her words coming out of her mouth in the form of hot mist. "I've heard there's an ice cavern that is so cold it can freeze you as you stand. I wanted to see if it actually exists."

Gray looked at her, a little surprised and not sure if she was lying or simply choosing her own adventure. "You've brought me into my element," he observed.

Summer nodded. "Not that this place is bad for me either," she said, sparking a warming fire from her hands. The wind howled and rushed past them, blowing the flames out instantly. "Um…"

Gray looked back, feeling the biting cold against them. "We should try to find shelter until the storm passes. We're not going to get far quickly like this," he told her, realising that as he looked up into the sky it was impossible to even tell the time of day.

"We'll never reach it if we can't even manage a little cold" Summer exclaimed, pushing her feet through the heavy snow. "First one there is the loser"

"You can't be serious…" He said, seeing her trying to push against the heavy fill of snow. Even as only a few steps in front, and even as she used her own magic to melt what she could, he could barely see that far ahead. "Summer!" He yelled again, the harsh winds stealing his words. The silhouette was disappearing to wind and he pushed forwards, trying to freeze the melting snow and use it to push away his path, looking up from his casting just in time to hear her scream.

"Summer!" He jumped forwards, grabbing her hand as she slipped down. He lay on the ground over what was very obviously now a hundred foot drop, holding onto Summer's hand as she dangled over the edge. Only his arm protected her from a deadly drop. She looked up at him panicking, squeezing tightly. Slowly flames twisted around her back, hissing loudly in her ears as the snow and ice blasted against them. They grew larger and the steam crackled and damaged her fiery wings, struggling to keep them in place and knowing that they wouldn't be strong enough to lift herself up. They could, however, help to give her the boost to pull her second hand against his arm.

She lifted herself up to the edge, arms over and legs still dangling precariously, panting as he offered to take her to safety. She looked up to him, knowing that he had saved her and that now her heart was beating heavily in her chest. But her eyes glanced past him. "Not now…" She whispered.

Gray turned around, staring back at the Centurion that watched them both struggle against the edge, his oversized sword plunging into the ground and cracking the ice. "Shit…" The whisper escaped but was never heard, the rocks, ice and snow they were against crumbling beneath them and dropping into the depths below.

Chapter 8

"Great work…" Grace panted, jumping once more against the rocks and creating her own ice bridges to run across the bridges, having to go quicker with every leap as they melted into the lava with a hiss.

"You don't have to tell me that," Natsu said confidently, anticipating her movements and the areas that she struggled to move around, moving around his attacks to counter this.

"You're just like Summer…" Grace said, complimenting him with the tone of affection in her voice. "She learns most from fighting," she said, finally landing one of her rare blows against him and throwing him off balance. "I'm slower than usual. From my training with Gray we move in very similar ways, you can learn the way he fights, the way he moves, the actions he'll take."

"I already know all that," Natsu told her, sucking up more of the fires that burst out of the lava bubbles. "We've been fighting since we were kids."

"So take as much advantage now as you can," Grace told her, letting him take his fill of power while she simply caught her breath. "While I'm slower and my actions are taking more time and less thought. Me and Summer can understand each other without a spoken word. You know, assuming she can stop talking."

"You shouldn't talk about her like that" he gritted his teeth, blowing out the fire that he had just consumed into a roaring attack against her, blasting through the earth and creating new rivers that the lava rushes into, surrounding her in the bubbling heat with only a shrinking foothold. "She's your nakama, isn't she?"

"She's more than that," Grace told him, looking around herself for her next move but realising that she needed more strength to even step away from the ground she was on. "We've been together for half a year, just the two of us. No Fairy Tale, no world to call our own, no Ethan, Luke, no Nakama but she and I. We didn't train because we wanted to, we weren't put together for any reason but because we had no choice."

"Half a year…?" Natsu asked, unable to even imagine spending half a day in such a position, especially with only Gray by his side.

Grace nodded, though it was only a guess. Time was a strange concept when they were going between worlds, and they had long since lost track. She was no longer looking around herself now, knowing that the ice inside her would melt before it left her fingertips.

"Then you'll know that we can do this," Natsu grinned, thinking of all of the worlds that they could possibly have seen in that time. "You'll have seen that if they're anything like us then they're strong. We look after our nakama, our guild, our friends."

Grace shook her head, taking all of her strength to stand up against the heat. "Do you think we spend all of this time in each world?" She asked him. "You're the first in a long time."

This surprised Natsu, especially after the way they had seemed to warm so well to Erza, Lucy and Happy. He had to remind himself these were a version of himself and Gray, and he couldn't imagine either of them being away from the guild so long. "Why us?" he asked, temporarily forgetting the fight.

Grace thought carefully, taking a step back realising that the heat was overpowering her now. "This is the only world we've found has both of you in."

There was a thud. And another. And another. Both turned, the huge footsteps shivering through the ground and even trembling the lava around them. Grace took a stumbling step back, her breath catching in her throat as the stared up at the huge monster. The Centurion was just the same as they had seen in the forest, but this one was easily three times the size. It cared little of the flames and lava around it, stepping into the blasting heat without even realising.

Natsu stepped forwards but Grace hung back, gritting her teeth. "We can do this together," he announced, glad to see the challenge had already presented itself.

"I… I don't have enough magic for this…" Grace said, slipping down to her knees as the last of her energy faded. She had hoped that Natsu in all of his observation would be able to see her weakness through the icy cold strength she showed off. Now she felt even more like a failure.

He narrowed his eyes, looking back at the monster. "Well I got rid of one…"

"You can't…" She whispered, shaking her head. "Natsu, see where we are. Even your flames won't make a mark on a creature that lives in a volcano."

"Then get your strength back." Natsu told her.

"I told you-"

"I heard what you said," he looked her square in the eye, sparkling brightly as he spoke. "I heard you, Grace. But I know that's not all you've got. I have faith in you."

Her heart felt like it was stopping, staring back into his eyes filled with determination. This was why Fairy Tail loved Natsu, this was the warmth that filled everyone and the hope that shone like a bright light. He had seen her strength disappear and had said nothing, because he knew deep down there was always more, and he would never have let her lose while that remained. A small smile crossed her face and she nodded back at him, reaching out her hand for him to help pull her across the lava, falling awkwardly against his chest and using his shoulders to support her standing. And like that, he didn't have to say anything and she understood exactly what was in his mind. They both raised their hands together, pointing straight at the Centurion and twisting the ice and fire together.

Chapter 9

The blizzard continued to rage, covering the world in a complete white blanket. Gray watched it as best he could from inside the cave. The cave wasn't deep but he hadn't wanted to delve too deeply without being able to see the weather outside, determined that he would try to move them as quickly as possible once the storm had weakened. He sighed, memories of running through the mountainside with Ur and Lyon unavoidable as he pulled his legs around himself. This was his element, this was his ground, and he had felt useless as the centurion had appeared. Thinking back he knew that he couldn't have done anything else, as there was no scenario where he would have left Summer's side as she struggled up the ledge.

Summer lay beside him, still unconscious. He had vague images of the ground collapsing around himself, trying desperately to hold onto something and feeling heat all around him, the flapping of fire wings and his own magic trying to grab onto anything to slow their fall. Then there was a splitting pain as they fell through the ice below, the freezing water below stabbing their lungs. He had dragged Summer to safety, and she hadn't woke since. She had stopped shivering, he noticed, unsure if that was a good thing, wondering if there was any way to make a fire. He too needed warmth, pulling his legs closer around himself. He had taken his wet clothes though he still wasn't sure if that had been the right decision, and hadn't been confident enough to try and remove hers. The very idea made him blush deeply and turn away.

"Cold…" Summer mumbled, turning over and pulling herself into a tight ball.

His eyes drifted back to her, concerned. He put the back of his hand on her cheek, feeling her low temperature even through his own. Her hair was ice, looking as if it could snap. "Summer…" He whispered to her. "You have to warm yourself. You have to cast some fire. Just a little flame."

She tightened her eyes shut. "You do it," she said, pulling her arms over her head.

His eyes went wide, snapping suddenly "What do you mean 'you do it'?" She either couldn't answer or didn't want to, pulling her head further down. He folded his arms across his chest, looking back at the blizzard. He was doing everything that he could, he had pulled her from the ice, and now she couldn't even pull herself to do one small small to pull their temperatures back up. He wanted to be angry, he wanted to blame her, but deep down he felt afraid. Even as he looked back at the storm he looked back at her, the tiny ball. She looked so vulnerable for a moment he could forget who she was, could see a small woman alone and cold. Except she wasn't alone, he was with her. He felt protective over her, instincts building inside of him that he didn't even know existed. Slowly and incredibly gently he pulled her closer, pulling up her tiny body up to his and wrapping his arms around her. Though he didn't have much body heat to give, she could take as much of it as she could. As her soaking icy hair touched his bare skin he shivered, but only held on closer, brushing it back away from her face.

Her eyes opened slowly, slowing adjusting to the warmth pressed against her. There was an interesting smell, one that filled her with warmth, and she found herself snuggling against the bare chest. Her fingers rested against it, and somewhere along the way she realised what she was doing. It didn't stop her, too cold and peaceful to pull herself away. As her mind filled with real thoughts, the warmer she became, and the warmer too he felt. She hadn't understood the extent of her heat, however, looking up as she realised that Gray was distracted. Her eyes caught a faint red hue circling around them, a warmth of which she had never felt before. Unlike the blasting fire she was used to, the heat that she adored and relished in, there was something inviting about the circle around them. It brought a smile to her face as she danced her fingers through it, as if she could touch the magic which bubbled them.

"Are you alright?" Gray asked her, watching her amazement at her own powers.

Summer finally glanced up at her savior, her smile growing and the warmth kicking into that of a favourite blanket. "You're wonderfully warm," she told him in a daze.

He laughed lightly. "You're freezing cold," he told her, pulling out an icicle from her fringe.

She shivered, partly from the cold and partly from feeling his fingers brush against her forehead. She could feel her body dripping with water, none more than the scarf strapped across her chest. She squirmed, trying to tug on the edges on her back and eventually taking his hands and placing them across her back, instructing him to pull it off. A little confused and embarrassed he pulled away the knot, leaving her to unwind it from her chest, leaving her loose jacket and a black bodice. She twisted the scarf in her fingers, squeezing out the water and brushing away the snow. Gray could only watch her cautiously and carefully as she wrapped the scarf around one of her hands, holding on tightly with the other end. With no warning she pulled it over his head, using the scarf to pull his neck closer to her as she whispered "Warm me up" into his kiss.

Chapter 10

The Centurion collapsed into a heap and Grace and Natsu celebrated with a fist bump and a knowing grin, having very little energy to do much else. The beast had been slain, the day had been won, and what was even better was that they had achieved the elusive Unison Raid spell between the conflicting fire and ice.

Natsu pulled his head up, looking around themselves. The heat was starting to become unbearable even to him and the earth was shuddering around them. It felt like more than just the ripples of the fallen centurion, and more than the rumbling of the volcano. There was a strange smell, like rotting flesh, and a strange sensation that ran through his bones. Grace seemed to notice it too, standing upright once more and staring into the horizon, watching as a huge black cloud loomed from the ground. "What is that?"

"That must be the crack the centurion came out of…" Grace whispered, staring forwards. In front of their eyes the cloud grew, a golden light gleaming and spreading over the edge and saturating the ground with a new horizon.

"The crack?" Natsu looked again. A sense of dread poured out, a sensation that was so rare gripping his bones.

"Run."

They ran. They needed no more invitation, they needed no more excuses. There was something about the world where all of there instincts told them that running was the only option. There was nothing to fight, nothing but fear and hopelessness twisting around their souls in its presenence. "You guys travel through them?" Natsu asked, sliding on the new ice ramp that Grace had made to jump over the river of flames.

"That's a dead world," Grace explained, her jump heightened by the flaming booster of Dragon Slayer magic. "It's the dead worlds that threatened mine. One of those cracks appeared on our sun," she explained, closing her eyes and remembering the horror as the watched her own world submerge into a inescapable darkness and depression. The dead worlds were worlds that had previously been lost, as some fateful decision years ago had been made incorrectly and the world had been destroyed. Some had nothing left, others were taken over by demons and others even had humans, corrupted and vicious beyond repair. All dark worlds had in common was that they destroyed everything they touched. And spread.

Natsu powered through, knowing that Grace's battle was now his own. The crack was spreading, and while they were miles from civilization every instinct inside of him told him that this disease would not go away by itself. "We'll get them back," he promised her.

x.

"We should be going," Gray said, looking out of the cave entrance as he pulled his shirt back on. It had a comforting warmth about it even through the cold, something that he tried to ignore even as it filled his heart.

"Do you really need to put those clothes back on?" Summer asked, pulling herself to her knees as she stretched.

"I really do not need anyone telling me to keep my clothes off," Gray snapped.

She stared at his back as he turned away again, pulling his jacket over his shoulders. The cave was warming, the clothes must have been almost too warm for them in here, and she had already seen it all. There was something in his tension that told her that he was having instant regrets, that suddenly he had remembered who she was and gone back to his ingrained prejudice. She at least knew that he was right, and that they needed to move again. She tightened her scarf back around her chest, thoughts of the huge fire dragon warming her chest as she pulled it close to her heart. She wished for his guidance now, even though she knew he would have probably laughed and yelled at her. Dragons could never care about such mundane things, any conflicts which stepped in their way could be solved with just a simple fiery blast. It wasn't a bad way to live.

"I think it's safe to say we shouldn't tell anyone about this," he said, still not looking at her. "We'll be reaching the guild soon, and when Levvy fixes your scanner you'll be on your way. Probably onto the next Gray. I guess this has been the same in every world for you, has it?"

She paused, holding her breath. She couldn't tell whether he was annoyed that she had fallen for him or jealous that she would be with others. "In other worlds…?" She repeated, not sure how to follow.

He turned back around to her, kneeling in front of her. "Has it been the same? Every Gray that you've met?"

"Well technically, yes…." She thought out loud, though it was clearly the wrong answer.

He didn't look at her or answer her. His mind was running a thousand miles an hour, trying to process everything that had just happened. This woman was kind, passionate, exciting and warming. She was everything that he loved and yet deep down she was everything he hated. She was the place inside of him filled with darkness and bitter confrontation, and the eyes that looked back at her just made him want to scream. What was worse was that she seemed to not understand how wrong it was. "How can you be so different?" He asked.

She blinked, staring at him. It was as if he wanted her to be different to Natsu, and she was happy to keep that illusion for a time. "Different experiences, I guess" she shrugged. "There are things I know I've seen that Natsu hasn't, and some pretty awesome adventures I'm sure he's been on I haven't had the chance to. It can be pretty lonely. Grace doesn't even let us talk to the people in other worlds usually. Not if I can't get there first." She pulled on her ankles, bringing her legs closer to her body. "She can be pretty cold."

Gray picked up Summer's bags, putting them down in front of her. "Have you and her ever…?"

Summer's eyes went wide and she blushed, shaking her head fiercely. "No way. Nuh uh. She's a serious ice bitch. Not a chance. Are you kidding me? Psh."

A smile crept on Gray's face, finally letting some of the happiness in the room into his heart. Now he was starting to understand that world, and in his mind how they were so incredibly different from the one that they stood in. "Come on, we don't want to waste the good weather. Fairy Tail is waiting."

Chapter 11

The two groups met along the path, worn but with a certain sense of victory over it all. They had all, in their own way, managed to get to a higher level with their gender swaps. How it would transpire between them was anyone's guess, and the few seconds of them staring between each other and trying to read their journey through their sweat and the look in their eye was slow and quiet. Smiles appeared gently on their faces, however, and without saying a word they knew that it was a race to finish line.

All four of them burst through the guild hall doors, a jumbled ball of arms and legs crashing through and dropping the hall into a stunned silence.

Natsu raised his head, exclaiming "I win!"

Summer looked up at all of the eyes staring back at her, eyes sparkling wide and brightly as she looked at all of the faces of the friends she had left behind. It was like a hilarious dream, staring up at people who seemed so familiar and yet so completely different. "Fairy Tail..!" she gasped.

"Get off me you stupid fire rat," Grace, who's head had been firmly planted between Summer's face and the floor, pushed up against Summer to sit up and throwing the pink haired wizard back.

She brushed herself down, and Summer jumped back up with fire in her words. "What's the big idea?" Summer yelled at her, grabbing onto Grace's hair and pulling hard.

"What do you mean you won?!" The boys behind them were already yelling at each other.

"This is it…" Lucy despaired. "This is how the world ends." It was clear to her that none of the training had obviously made a difference, as they were all fighting just as much as before if not more so. The boys together could be a little harmless (sort of) rivalry. This was almost a war.

Erza was less patient. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists tightly, looking at them all and the four-way battle that was erupting. "Are you telling me that you've just been wasting that training time fighting each other for the last two days?!"

All four of them jumped back, every one of them sharing a mutual terror for an angry Erza. "But we weren't arguing…!" Gray told her.

"Yeah we even did a Unison Raid and everything!" Natsu said.

Grace smiled as she saw Summer and Gray's reaction as they fell into shock. "So, I take it that you didn't manage it?" She toyed, putting a hand on her hip and enjoying the moment.

"We, uh…" Summer looked up at Gray, remembering how important it was for her to keep her mouth shut. It was no easy task. "We fell off a cliff. Oh shit, is that a male Gazella? Fight me!" She gasped, jumping away and into the crowds of Fairy Tail, her face brighter and grin wider than it had been in months.

As Summer bounced between her old friends, Natsu joined her side, laughing with everyone else as they absorbed the joy of being within a guild. For a moment Summer could forget her home, she could just laugh with everyone else and work with Natsu to show off their similarities and differences. Grace watched them both affectionately, surprised as she found herself surrounded by curious guild members.

"Gray-Sama!" Juvia walked through the open door, her heart lifted. She had heard the loud celebrations from down the street and had hope need dearly that it meant that Gray was back from his last mission. It had been longer than usual that he had been away and it took everything inside her to stop herself from running off and trying to find him, even when she didn't know where they would be. She stepped forwards and stopped herself, staring at the barely dressed stranger standing beside him. She was all too close to him, Juvia decided, as a blush crossed her face, thoughts of who this new rival could be burning inside of her.

Grace looked back to Juvia, noticing how Gray didn't turn to his own name. "Julian?" She asked.

"Juvia."

Grace nodded knowingly, stepping forwards. As she did, Juvia's eyes caught the bright blue Fairy Tail symbol resting across her breast, exactly the same as the chest that she spent hours each day staring at. The woman was examining her, leaning forwards and scanning her with her eyes. "So you're Juvia," she commented, and Juvia felt her blush deepen for some reason. "You make a prettier girl than a boy."

Juvia's words caught in her throat, trying to pull back her mind to any relative that Gray had mentioned before. She had been certain that his entire family had been killed years ago, and even then had had no siblings. The resemblance was too much to be anything further than a twin, and even then there was a look in her eyes that was so familiar. Juvia's eyes widened. "Gray…-Sama?" she addressed her.

"They call me Grace in my world," Grace told her, quietly impressed with her observational skills. "And over there is Summer"

Summer waved over the crowds, already half way through her own battle with anyone and everyone that could try and challenge them. "Hi!" She called out, throwing a punch at whoever looked like the enemy.

Juvia blushed, trying to avoid looking at Grace in the eyes. There was something incredibly unsettling about seeing the man she loved in such a feminine figure. While she had a very athletic build, slim chested with barely any curves, it was still so very different and she almost didn't want to appreciate those differences. It was confusing enough.

"Grace, Summer," Erza said to them both, pulling them away from their separate conflicts. "This is Levvy, she's going to help you pull together a new scanner."

Levvy stood, feeling very much in the spotlight as she held her books close to her chest. "I've been doing some research…" She announced. "I think I can get you a new scanner in the morning."

Chapter 12

 _It was exhausting, but the day had been won. Though the city didn't look like that of a victory, as Summer walked through she could see no more creatures or dragons. Buildings were demolished, rubble scattered the streets and bloodshed clearly written across the walls. The night had been long, but the sun was coming up now, and she wanted to be sure to get back to her guild and her friends and tell them of how she had rode the flame dragon to greatness, even if she had been disappointed that he had missed his chance to beat a real dragon. The Dragon Slayers had some work to do, she decided, before their own dragons could come back to their sides._

 _The further she walked the more her eyes were opened to carnage. Friends dragged out their friends, carried them and shouted for help. She did all she could, receiving thanks and good wishes, but for some of them it was simply too late. These were people she did not know well, but faces that she had seen over the course of the Grand Magical Games, cheering from the crowds and from the booths as they watched their friends fight. Battles sometimes had losers, she knew, and the bigger the battle the bigger the cost. It only made her want to meet her friends more._

 _Everyone walked to the center of the town, where orders and help was being instructed. She could see the two wind magic users bringing themselves to the point of exhaustion, but giving Summer a warming smile as she walked past. Seeing them busy, she moved on._

 _The memory would stay with her for years, stepping forwards and seeing her friends standing. Luke was on his knees, in pure disbelief and shock, while Ethan stood in front of Layla, the white-haired ice wizard, and spoke to her. Summer's steps became slower as she walked, somehow knowing that there was something ahead that would cause indescribable pain. Layla looked up at her, and Ethan followed her glance back to Summer. Their eyes were filled with tears._

 _Summer walked closer slowly, her head spinning. While deep down she already knew, her brain refused to connect the dots. Even glancing to Julian, on his knees as his eyes poured with tears, staring forwards to what could only be described as an ice coffin._

 _They told her what had happened. They told him how Grace had pulled Julian out of the way just as the dragon beasts had fired against her. They told her that she would be missed, and that Layla had encased her body in ice. They told her that she had saved Julian's life, that her life wasn't given in vain, that it had been a quick death._

 _Summer gripped her hands together tightly, not wanting to believe a word of it. The words themselves washed over her but the meanings stuck and refused to be shaken away. Her breath shuddered uncontrollably and she was aware of hot tears on her cheeks but not of how they got there. She shook her head, and jumped forwards._

 _"_ _Summer!" Ethan gasped as Summer rushed past her, diving to the ice coffin. It couldn't be real, Summer had decided, determined to prove them all wrong. She would show them all, even show her tears that they were false. Julian looked up at him, his eyes wide and filled with immeasurable pain, and he flinched as Summer's fist cracked down against the thick ice._

 _Ethan was at her now, trying to pull back his arms as she continued to pummel against the thick ice. It cracked against her bleeding knuckles even without the use of fire. She and Grace fought with fists, not magic. The case began to fall away. Ethan grabbed Summer by both arms now, pushing her into the ground as Summer screeched and shouted and tried to fight back, staring up at her target. As she lay helpless she could finally see. Her eyes sparkled with new tears, and all new terror, staring up at her friend. Summer screamed. No one had said she'd been shot through the head._

x.

After a long and rowdy night, Summer stumbled through the streets, struggling to stay in a straight line. It had been a long time since she had had alcohol, and the drinks she had quickly consumed had left her head spinning and her belly nicely warm. It had also made her too emotional, she decided, sighing to herself. The people that she had laughed and drank with were wonderful, they were kind and it was hilarious to compare them, but they simply weren't the friends that she had left behind so long ago. She put her hand over her Fairy Tail emblem, wishing that she could feel it's warmth again. Spending time with only an ice wizard was making her colder, she grumbled to herself, though that only made her feel a bigger lump in her throat.

"Summer?" Gray looked at her, not sure if she was aware of where she was or where she was going to, but her rosy cheeks and lopsided smile made him cautious. "You're drunk…" He told her.

She stepped forwards, not saying a word as she swiftly put her arms around her shoulders and held on as tight as she could, her entire body shuddering. At first Gray tensed, aware that they were in the middle of a public street though there was clearly no one else around. Then he felt her shuddering, a sudden weakness from her that he'd so rarely felt before. He softened. "Come on, let's get you a hot drink…" he offered her gently.

She didn't let go for a long time, but eventually she pulled herself back and nodded, giving him the brightest smile she could manage.

Chapter 13

"Six months without talking to anyone?" Gray asked again.

The two sat in a brightly lit café, opposite sides of the table and two steaming hot green teas in front of them. The rosiness in Summer's cheeks stayed, but she was more stable sitting down, though the words of truth found themselves tumbling out. She nodded but looked away from his eyes. "I left everyone in my guild without a second thought. At first it was awesome, and it felt like we were achieving something. And we got to meet with new guilds, but we only met a couple before we just…. Stopped. Grace is pretty the only one I've spoken to."

"So now you're talking to me?" Gray questioned.

"Hey, you're the one who stopped me!" Summer snapped back at him, folding her arms across her chest.

Gray sipped the drink, choosing not to rise against her while she was clearly in a more vulnerable state. He wasn't sure how to read her at all, or how to act around her. His instincts now were to protect her, though just the thought that this was Natsu in female form made that feel backwards. He couldn't help but think what he would have done if it was Natsu in front of him, though he told himself that would be impossible. The two must have been different beyond gender, he decided, but was that just the affects of being separated from your nakama for so long? "At least you had Grace. I know the two of you may not get along, but having someone from your Fairy Tail is better than nothing."

She didn't look at him. Even without glancing at him, Gray could see that there was something in her eyes, some reason that hurt her more than she could say out loud. They had boasted for so long that they had been able to work together despite everything, the Unison Raid and the fighting skills that they had shared together were nothing short than extraordinary.

"We were wondering where you had gone off to," Erza came to their table, a warming smile on her face as she saw both of her friends. Behind her were their companions, Lucy already ordering drinks for everyone, Happy diving into Summer's chest and accepting her warm hugs while Natsu sat beside Summer and Grace beside Gray. Erza took a seat and pulled it to their booth. "Levvy says that she'll be finished the device within the hour. It turns out that she couldn't sleep without finishing it." She said fondly.

"I have a good feeling about the next world" Grace said confidently, "I'm sure that it'll be the one we're looking for."

Lucy walked back over to the table, pulling up her own chair. "Levvy even said that she can help pull together a map for you to help find your way more easily."

"You hear that, Summer, we can be home in no time," Grace grinned.

Summer blushed. "Yeah. That sounds pretty awesome," she admitted, slurring her words a little.

"Summer was just talking about the different worlds you've seen," Gray told them, trying to pull from Grace the information that he failed from Summer. "And how come you've been spending so long in this world compared to the others."

Grace seemed surprised. "You were?"

"Hey, you mentioned something about that…" Natsu replied, looking to Grace as the waiter put down each of their drinks and walked away without a word.

Grace looked uncomfortable, trying to gage how much should be said and how much was unnecessarily cruel. "We used to spend a lot of time in other worlds…" She explained slowly, surprising even herself as the memories came flooding back. "The first three worlds or so we went to and we actually enjoyed. We found they were useful and it was fun to be around people so similar, so we could almost forget about the danger in our own world. I can still remember the first time we saw a difference….

 _Summer and Grace walked along beside each other, still laughing about the previous guild. Though none of the worlds had been incredibly different, there had been certain things that they were able to match and contradict that left them laughing. It hadn't been long since they had gone, and already they had felt hopeful that they could finish their task in next to no time, and go back to fighting each other instead of a common enemy._

 _The Summer from this world stepped forwards, her eyes wide. She barely moved for a long time, not taking her eyes from Grace. In a sudden leap she bounded forwards, but instead of punching her, her arms were around her shoulders and gripping tightly and refusing to let go._

 _Eventually they were able to explain that they were from another world, and that there were now two Summers. The stranger explained that in her own timeline, Grace had died only two weeks before, and she was waiting for a miracle. Grace was dragged inside, where the guild members cheered loudly and accepted her as their own. Deep down they had all known she wasn't the one that they had lost, but that hadn't made the tearful goodbyes any easier._

"At first we had thought it had been bad luck, but that was five years ago and every world we have been in up to this one, Grace has been dead. It didn't take long to realize that we were doing more harm than good…" Grace continued, fully aware that she had their attention now and still unsure if it was right to tell them or not. She didn't even want to look at Gray, knowing herself how it had felt to see fate had other plans for you. "I don't know what makes this world so different, but I suppose you are just lucky."

Gray glanced back at Summer, Grace's words ringing through his mind as she described the way that Summer had reached over to him and held him suddenly close. He had to remind himself that it was the same person, whatever the world.

"No way would I do that, not in any world," Natsu told her.

"Well, actually, most of them just punched me in the face…" Grace did have to admit.

Erza stood, not wanting to sink the night into unhappiness when there had been so much to enjoy. "Then we have even more to celebrate," she offered them, raising her tea. "We are the lucky ones."

They nodded and smiled, each raising their glass up and repeated "We are the lucky ones"

Chapter 14

They gathered in the great hall of Fairy Tail, surrounding a long table that was piled high with papers, Levvy staring at each of them in turn and twisting around the cogs and magical inscriptions, solidifying them into a very real creation. They watched her with interest, Gajeel with particular interest as her desk covered in nuts and bolts. She put the strange metallic device back onto the table with a sigh, bowing her head. "I'm sorry…" she mumbled under her breath, awkwardly curling up. "I can't seem to get it to work…"

They looked at her lost, barely able to believe what they were hearing. Levvy was one of the most intelligent wizards that most of them had ever had the chance to meet, and this was exactly the kind of task that she could excel at. There was so much at stake, too, and she had seemed so confident just a few moments ago.

Lucy looked at her, realizing how much this must have hurt her. "It's ok…" Lucy told her, her voice soft and sweet. "I know you would have tried your best…"

"It's not that…" Levvy said, her voice shaking as she spoke. "I was trying to use the theories in this book to create a signal that showed where the nearest crack that would bring you to the world…" she said, trying to think of how best to describe it. "It's like trying to use ripples to track which way to move to the cause of the splash. I just don't think that this is within my abilities…" she said, looking sorry for herself.

"But you can do it!" Summer said, tightening her fists and looking at her with a look of determination and desperation. "Leigh did this in our world. You and him, you're the same person deep down, I know you are!" she was practically shouting now, as Levvy looked up at him with eyes filling with tears. Of course she knew that they were the same person, she knew that she should have been able to do this, but knowing that she had been beaten by herself only made her want to crumble into a ball. "You've just got to think about it more, that's all! I know you can do it!"

"All we need is to know if we're in the right world or not," Grace told her, her voice cooler and calmer than her comrades though she too felt the same frustrations. "Anything else is a bonus."

"Well… that's just the thing…" Levvy said, picking up the device and showing it clearly to both of them. "It says here that it's this world…"

The device shone brightly in her hand, a dial lighting up with a giant 'yes' written above it. It was exactly the same device that Summer and Grace had seen before, so much so that they found it hard to believe that it couldn't possibly be any less accurate. This Levvy had been thumbing through the same old scriptures and had somehow had the exact same mind to create something that in appearance worked the same. Unless someone at some point of their different histories had made some mistake, it should have been accurate.

Grace gritted her teeth, taking a small step back. Summer looked at it with wide eyed awe. "Is this it?!" she asked, a grin crossing from ear to ear and momentarily forgetting the hardship that would come with this answer. "Are we finally here?!"

"Could it really be this world?" Erza asked, amazed herself. "How could this have happened?"

Levvy tilted her head, thinking about that answer. "From what I've heard there are many reasons that could have separated us from 'fate' and the natural progression of time and space…" she said, pulling up her notes. "According to the records any contact with other parallel worlds, changes in time or huge magical anomalies can cause slight shifts and fractures. Our contact with Edolas, the Etherion blast, the Eclipse gate, Tenrou Island, any of these things could have caused our world to unsync from the rest of the worlds," she said, taking off her glasses with a sigh. This really was a rowdy guild, whatever world they entered there was no denying that her homeland was a one in a million. It almost made her feel warmed for a moment, knowing that the faces around her could even last an impression on the entire universe.

"I really don't get it…" Summer admitted, a blank look on her face. "But if you say that this is the world we've been hunting for all this time then that's awesome!" she said, her expression changing to one of joy. "I'm fired up now!"

Grace didn't move, her pale face losing even more of its colour. She looked at Summer with horror, a bead of sweat running down her forehead. _Summer, have you already forgotten our mission…?_ She found herself thinking, unable to form words. _If this is our target… we need to destroy this world!_

 **Chapter 14b - ALTERNATIVE ENDING**

They gathered around Levy expectedly, all of them watching as she twiddled around the dials and final screws. Gajeel watched her with a different interest, amazed at how she was able to craft the iron into something so incredibly intricate. For Grace and Summer it was an instant confident boost as they watched the exact same creation that they had had in the other world come back to life. "Please don't lose this again…" Levy told them, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. Though she had actually enjoyed creating the measurement equipment it hadn't been an easy task and she had lost hours of rest as she became fixated. Finally, however, the final screw was attached and she was able to place into their hands a cube.

The two women looked at the device, their male counterparts looking over both of their shoulders at the creation. It was a very simple design, with a flashing red light at the touch of a button, but there was a new part to it which neither Grace nor Summer recognized. "What's with the dial?" Summer asked the scholarly mage, watching as it flickered back and forth.

"Well, after you said you'd been going travelling around for quite some time I thought that you might need a map…" Levy said, actually starting to feel a little proud of herself for the additional part of the invention. "The dial shows you just how near or far you are to the universe that you need."

They both glanced down, seeing tiny hand pointed almost at the very top. "We're really close!" Summer exclaimed excitedly.

Levy grinned back at them, leaning forwards in the chair. "You are," she said, having realised the same thing as she had crafted the last pieces together. "You can use this before you step into another world, too. If you point this towards the crack the handle will move closer, like a game of hotter or colder."

"And hotter is always the best way to go!" Summer grinned, ignoring the glares from Grace standing beside her.

Levy sighed, realising it would be just as pointless to argue against Summer as it was Natsu. "Just remember that the parallel world's navigation is like a giant maze. Just because you're close doesn't mean that it's the right path to take. You'll still need to keep your wits about you."

"Like she had any wits in the first place…" Summer pointed out coldly.

"So, does this mean you two will be going?" Natsu suddenly realised, looking back at the two new friends that they had created.

Grace nodded to him, insisting "We've been here too long as it stands. And now we know that we're finally near the world that we need to be, and then we can finally go home." She clenched her fist tightly in determination. The months were being swept away now, and all she could think about was being able to make sure that the people she had cared for were safe. It had been a long time, she didn't know what kind of state Fairy Tail would be in after she and Summer had left the destruction.

Although home meant something different to Summer than it did to Grace, the idea that after all of these months they were finally so close to victory spurned her on too. "It's so close I can almost smell it," she said, a fire burning through her words as she spoke. "I'm fired up now."

x.

They escorted the two dopplegangers to the side of the crack. It had taken a long time for them to find a crack that was suitable, as all of them had either been the dreaded 'dead worlds' or had sent the reader spiraling in the opposite direction. They were starting to lose hope, wondering if they would have to go back on their route and try and get into the other world through another area. It was on one of the furthest corners of Fiore that they had seen the tiny crack, barely showing on their radar, and barely big enough for them to have been able to squeeze through. As they pushed the device closer, the flashing red light beamed into a brilliant green.

"This is really it…" Summer whispered as she knelt by the crack, putting her hand through and testing the temperature of the world they were about to step through. Looking inside it looked no different to the world they were in, barely visible except to their fully trained eyes.

"Will you be coming back out this way?" Lucy asked curiously, seeing how small the rift was and not knowing if it would even be an option to travel both directions.

"Actually, we need your help," Grace said suddenly, folding her arms across her chest. "We need you to seal this area."

The Fairy Tail members took a step back, and even Summer seemed surprised at Grace's sudden announcement. "Seal it?" they shouted out, sensing that there was more to this than just closing a door. Though none of them had known if Grace and Summer would be able to return to this world after their mission was complete, something in Grace's eyes told them that this was more final that that.

Grace looked away, dreading to think how this would have played out if this world had been the broken one. She had tried not to grow attached to anywhere, but even from a distance they had seen so many fairy tail members, so much happiness and hopefulness spread across the world she had no reason to believe the world they would be walking into would be any different. She tightened her shaking fist, gritting her teeth. "We need to destroy this world," she said, not even able to look the others in the eye. "When this world is destroyed everything will go back to how it was. We'll return to our world, the cracks will seal, the centurions will stop. We can't guarantee that none of the blast will come through the cracks before that, however. You need to protect your world now."

The members of this world watched in stunned horror at Grace, trying to process exactly what she was trying to explain to them. "You're going to destroy… an entire world…?" Gray asked, his eyes wide as he looked at the villain he could have so easily become.

Grace shivered, a tear running down her tear as she tried so hard to be brave. She wasn't sure if there would be any chance of returning to a home after what they were going to do, or even if she would be able to look at herself. "It sounded so simple at the time…" she choked, remembering every face that she had seen along the way, every difference between every world that had made each one more charming than the last. Would this world have a Summer, a Natsu, a Gray or a Grace? There was no way to know, and she had no intention of finding out before she destroyed it all. "But this is the only way to make the rest of the universe safe. For the sake of one world, we could all be killed."

Gray stepped forward, knowing that once again it came down to them to make the biggest of sacrifices. Giving your own life was easy, he knew, he had been all too willing to do so for most of his life. Taking life was difficult and it was a heavy burden to bear. "Just promise me that you won't accept that," he told her in understanding. "Promise me that you will try every other option before you even think about destroy that world. Promise me you will try everything in your power to keep them all alive."

She looked up at him with teary eyes, feeling her heart racing in her chest. For a moment she had forgotten what it felt to care for the world around her, and it had taken her own voice to bring back that light. She nodded. "I'll do everything I can. But please, protect this world. Protect this crack and make sure that no one else is hurt from this."

Natsu came and stood beside Gray, a smile on his face as he watched both Summer and Grace. "Don't worry about it, we'll seal this up. We trust you guys, you'll come up with something."

Grace turned back to Summer and they nodded to one another, realizing now that the mission had changed. They wouldn't let Natsu and Gray down, they wouldn't let themselves down, and if there was any possible way of protecting the world they were about to step into then they would find it. Grace had felt touched, realizing that Natsu was trusting not only Grace and Summer but also himself and Gray. Deep down all four of knew that if any of them wanted to achieve something, there was nothing they couldn't do, and together they were unstoppable.


	3. A Missing Minute

**Name: A Missing Minute**

 **Genre; Angst**

 **Background; I wrote this over Christmas/New Year (cheery topic for the season, I know!) as a massive binge writing session. When I read it back I realised it was something that would take a long time to edit and finish, and at the time I was already working on 4 other fanfictions so this one was just left. Sorry it has an incredibly abrupt ending because of this!**

* * *

A Missing Minute

Crocus had been devastated. The buildings that had not been destroyed by the fierce fight of the Grand Magical Games had long since fallen under the might of seven terrifying dragons that had spiralled through time to spread their sadistic destruction. The day had officially been won by the present day unity of wizards, but it didn't feel like much of a victory.

The strongest wizards of every guild had already been caught in the midst of one of the most strenuous Grand Magical Games finales that they had seen since the games' revival seven years earlier, hours before they had even known that the sky would rain fire. They had been beaten and weakened, some of them to an inch of their lives, and then they had been asked to fight harder than they had ever dared against the most unbelievable and deadly of foes. The casualties had been mounting since the first dragon's roar, and now they were disappearing in a whisp of smoke the numbers continued to rise.

Lucy's heart pounded in her chest as she looked at the destroyed Eclipse Gate, feeling her heart racing through the ages with every Lucy that had suffered under the twists and turns of time travel. The princess was saying her less than fond farewells to the last fading Jade dragon, but her eyes were pinned on Natsu. The pink-haired Dragon Slayer didn't seem to even notice her as he stared down at his enemy, the man that he may have called nakama in a different time and circumstances, but this Rogue was a different man to the fellow dragon slayer they had only just beaten. Natsu's eyes showed no recognition or respect towards the fallen man, watching him disappear into the impossible time difference. He didn't look at Lucy for a long time but she eventually scrambled back to her feet, rushing up to the distracted man and throwing her arms around his waist, burying into his back.

As if in a trance, his hands rested against hers as she squeezed his torso tightly. He was distracted, not in his typical happy-go-lucky style but an entirely new type of distraction. He was lost in thought, staring at the spot that Rogue had just dissolved from, both physically and emotionally exhausted. Slowly he began to realise her forehead was rested against his back, the shaking breathing his keen hearing alerting him to the tears she was trying to hold back. "It's OK. We won," he said slowly, squeezing her hand tightly.

"I thought I was… I thought…" She trembled, losing the strength from her legs and beginning to fall.

He turned quickly, holding her arms and pulling her close to his chest. She blinked, surprised to so suddenly be wrapped in Natsu's arms despite having just wrapped him in hers, not only shocked to feel the kind gesture but by just how comforting it was. "I wouldn't have let anything happen to you. Not ever again," he said slowly, his voice deep and monotonous.

She slowly closed her eyes, feeling the tears she had felt herself holding back as she realised exactly what dark corner Natsu had pulled his pain from. It had only been hours since they had watched the Future Lucy killed, powerless to stop her from protecting the beautiful blond of the present day. Lucy knew how close Rogue had come to succeeding, if not by his own hands but by the dragons themselves, and knew that she needed to soak every bit of strength that Natsu now offered her. In the midst of the battle she had turned the corner and found herself face to face with a half dozen of the dragon-like minions, saved only by her predictable good luck as a form crashing down from the sky distracted them just long enough for her to turn and run to her nearest nakama. She couldn't help shake the idea that she should be dead, that she had already passed too many wounded on their way to the gate and too many fellow wizards that didn't seem to be moving at all. She buried deeper into his chest, not wanting to think of the horrors she had already seen and the ones that would be before them.

The grim reality was inescapable. As Natsu dutifully held her close, his eyes began to wander across the broken horizon and to the ashen wasteland that had remained. They had managed to evacuate most of the citizens before the battles begun, but these streets were still lined with the hundreds of wizards that he had been proud to call friends, even if it had only been for the last few short days. They had been assured that precautions had been taken to ensure that any damage done during the games could be repaired, but there was no way to know if that extended as far as dragon fire. The worst part was that he knew that he had failed. There were seven whisks of smoke disappearing into the future; not a single dragon had fallen that day, despite the might of seven dragon slayers.

"Natsu-San," Wendy walked up to her friend, barely able to keep her eyes open but still able to offer him the beaming smile he clearly needed. "You did it. You broke the gate."

He blinked, almost forgetting that he was supposed to be happy as the grin once again plastered his face. They had been victorious, despite everything, despite all of the carnage and darkness and pain and the wounds that would no doubt leave scars, they had won this day and now he held the key to preventing this path following their future.

"Leave it to Natsu to be good at destroying something," Laxus complimented slyly with a lazy grin, scratching the back of his head as he looked at the piles of rubble that the girls had been completely unable to even scratch.

Natsu had to laugh, finally letting go of the celestial wizard and looking to the others. These were the faces that he had saved and there was never a better feeling than knowing he had done a good job beating up bad guys. Even if those bad guys were dragons and future versions of good guys and all of the lines got more than a little blurred together. His friends all looked ready to collapse at a moment's notice, however, and he couldn't deny that he felt the same. He couldn't let himself fall until he had reunited himself with his guild, shaking away his tiredness and gripping his hands tightly as they began to walk forwards.

It was then that they saw the path that Lucy had walked, the blood on the streets and the screaming wounded. Wendy gasped at the first comrade that she saw, a weaker member of Mermaid Heel that had been standing and cheering from the first day. She was screaming and holding what was left of her arm, but when Wendy rushed to her side she shook her head and gestured down to another young woman. Wendy had almost missed her, her ashen skin blending with the rocks that buried her. The other dragon slayers quickly pulled the boulders from her, but even before they had freed her Wendy was trembling, tears racing down her eyes as she whispered that it was simply too late. The young wizard with the broken arm cried loudly, screaming objections and clutching onto her nakama in disbelief.

Almost in unison, the Fairy Tail wizards turned to the rest of the street, realising that this was the first of a long, long line of death and pain.

It took a long time for Wendy to leave the crying wizard's side, pulled up by Charlie as she continued to soothe her as best she could. The youngest dragon slayer could feel the pain as her own, and something deep inside knew to fear the next few steps. The team, despite their aches and wounds, resolved that they would spread out to try and save as many injured and return them to the same meeting point. Though none of them knew the city well, the fountain they had gathered around to achieve their outstanding victory in the Grand Magical Games was an easily reachable point in plain sight. Gently, Laxus picked Wendy up and placed her back onto her feet, putting a firm hand on her shoulder. "Your job isn't done yet, I'm afraid," he told her, his voice stern yet soft.

Wendy turned away, unable either to look at the first body or her comrade. "I know," she croaked. "I want to help."

He nodded, pride in his gaze towards her as he knew she needed more strength than the rest of them combined. In true dragon slayer style, they would lend each other their power as best they could. "We'll take you to the centre and bring the injured to you so you don't need to move."

"You mustn't push yourself, Wendy," Charlie reminded her sharply, knowing that she would say those words several times over. "We can't expect you to heal every one, and you'll have to prioritise. I'll be there to help you as much as I can."

Lucy nodded, knowing that she would not have the strength to continue to walk much further. "I'll help you too. And as soon as we find Sherria, we'll make sure that she can lend a hand too," she said confidently.

"Right!" Natsu said, determined now that they finally had a plan and some form of wading through the mass of hopelessness around them. "Let's go!"

Laxus nodded, carefully pulling the fallen wizard into his arms and carrying her, watching as Lucy slowly began to lift the injured lady as her last act of strength. He didn't show the same optimism as his fiery counterpart, but there was a somber determination rested in his eyes. "If you find blankets, medicine, anything that might be useful, gather what you can and bring it to the centre. Natsu, you might be needed to cauterise some wounds if Wendy can't heal them all."

Natsu nodded, his fists already flaming despite feeling the last of his magical energy trickling away. "Right."

They made their way through the broken city with a new sense of purpose, haunted by the cries and screams piercing through a new haunting silence. These streets should have been filled with people, especially those celebrating the victory of the games, even at the late hour of the night it still hung in the unnaturally quiet darkness. As well as the two that they had already found, before reaching the fountain they had found three more wizards trapped in the rubble, every one of them feeling a sense of relief as they were alive and one was stable enough to walk by themselves. Determined and somewhat traumatised, the stranger vowed that he would spread the news to other survivors and disappeared back into the chaos before they had reached their destination.

Fairy Tail had not been the only ones to come up with their decision. Wizards from all guilds were beginning to walk to the familiar meeting point, many helping each other when they struggled to walk while others did all they could to count their loved ones. The numbers were small now, but there were more arriving even as they did, eyes pinned towards the small sky wizard. Wendy's eyes went wide, realising that everyone in the clearing was staring at her for the support she specialised in, but she was no longer alone. "Sherria… Sherria-San!" she called loudly, running across the broken cobblestones and falling into her newest friend's arms tightly.

"Wendy-San!" Sherria gasped, her eyes already wide and wrapping around her sky sister as soon as she could be pulled close. She buried against her neck, but was quick to pull back. "I'm so glad that you're here too. My magic won't last much longer and there are so many wounded … How is yours?" she asked desperately.

Wendy's lips twisted awkwardly, glancing around them and realising that even with their brief moment of congratulations there were lives suffering around them. "I'm not sure… I tried to give it my all to the dragon."

Sherria nodded in understanding, but took no more time in her greeting, kneeling beside the nearest wizard and beginning her spell. "Anything will help right now, I think. They're trying to gather everyone here."

"That was our idea too," Laxus told them both, walking back over, looking tired and trying keep his voice stable. He didn't want to mention the pile of bodies that were already beginning to grow, only thankful that he hadn't seen a single face familiar enough to know by name. "We'll scout around as best we can. Have you seen anyone from Fairy Tail?"

Sherria shook her head. "This corner mostly had mages from Blue Pegasus and a couple of the guilds that didn't make the qualifier, I think. I've not even been able to find anyone from Lamia Scale except for Jura," she mentioned, nodding to the far side and the winding empty alleyways. "There are mostly collapsed buildings to the West, so he's gone in that direction to see if he can move any of the rubble. We've had a few teams going to the South, too, but not so many to the East yet, which is where Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail mostly were. I think everyone is just trying to find their own friends right now, and I can't blame them," she sighed heavily, looking down at her healing magic and for a moment wishing desperately that she could be rushing into the heart of the city to find her loved ones. "If you find them, please can you send them this way?"

Natsu heard the strain in her voice, suddenly realising that this wasn't just one of their missions where everyone could walk away and laugh about it later. The sky wizard was terrified, and he could feel the terror resonating from his friends too. "Don't worry about it, we'll get them all back here," he announced, though even he couldn't bring himself to grin through it. He allowed no doubt of hope in his words however, knowing that he would bring everyone home.

Though they would be powerless to choose which wizard they saved or found first, Natsu had a mental list of names. The list included every member of Fairy Tail, of course, and since the grand magical games it also included a fair amount of names that he had only known for the last few days. They weren't all equal, some names screaming in the front of his mind over and over while others whispered so quietly he felt a twist of guilt. The list was growing longer and longer, and the casualties continued to rise, but with every name he whispered to himself 'no, not you'.

Lisanna had been near the very top of his list, the only one who's whispered had turned into a 'not again'. Her brother and sister, standing either side of her as they propped up several other more wounded from the surrounding guilds. The grin fell back on his face as he waved, receiving a wave back from the Strauss siblings, and suddenly he didn't know what he had been worried about. Fairy Tail was stronger than any of this, Fairy Tail always came up winning and crying the challenge 'is that all you've got?!'.

As agreed, they decided to split up, but knowing that there had been very few mages that had travelled in the direction of Fairy Tail they each picked a similar path. The threats were now gone so they didn't need strength, but it became quickly obvious that travelling alone also didn't make sense. Natsu had Happy on his back which he learnt quickly had been a blessing as the first injured came before him. The wizard, almost indisguishable with the blood splattered across his chest and face, was too hopeless to leave behind, perched between life and death and barely making sense, but the twisted position of his body made it clear that this was someone who couldn't be moved. Happy gladly sped away while Natsu tried to calm the wounded Mage, realising he was injuring himself further as he tried to push away the heavy boulders. Within moments all those who could appeared to Natsu's side with a stretcher, and the dragon slayer and Happy helped to carry yet another comrade back to the sky sisters.

This repeated several times over. Sometimes Natsu was able to help them himself, other times Happy had to rush back to the main camp and ask for others. The more injured they found, the more stable they found, however, and the search and recover missions became wider and more spread. Not quickly enough, however. Natsu found himself gritting teeth every time he found yet another non-Fairy Tail member, increasingly impatient. It only became worse when Wendy and Sherria began to ask for his fire magic, desperate to go back into the field as yet more of the dead began to pile.

Only when sitting did he realise how exhausted he had become. He obediently cauterised wounds and bandaged where he could, but he hadn't realised just how much energy he had poured into what seemed a hopeless cause. Wendy had seen the tiredness in his eyes, the way he ran at the first opportunity and she had been keen to force him to recover his strength, not only for his body but for his mental stability. He wouldn't have been willing to stop completely, but in his haste he had missed so much that she had seen, the small glimmers of hope that had kept her working. Gently, she tapped his shoulder, gesturing behind him.

Cana staggered forwards, carrying one of the members of Quattro Cerberus on her arm as she rather indignintly dropped him in front of Bacchus's feet. "Oi, look after your nakama better next time," she murmured, though the way she tugged on her hair and struggled to even lift just herself showed that she held no ill feeling.

"Go easy on him," Max rolled his eyes, dropping down several new blankets and canteens of water to the Quatro Cerberes mages.

"Cana… Max…" Natsu breathed, barely able to believe his eyes. "When did they get here?!"

"Several hours ago," Wendy smiled, wiping the sweat from her brow. "There are a few from other guilds that are here too, doing exactly the same thing you were. You always disappeared so quickly we couldn't tell who you knew was here and who wasn't…" She whispered, looking around. "Right… Who's… Who's next?" She asked, swaying slightly on the spot.

"Careful, Wendy," Charlie said quickly, flying up and putting her hand on her shoulder to keep her stable. "You need to take a rest."

Wendy shook her head, instantly making herself dizzy as she did so and slipping onto her hands. "I can do more…" She gasped, running her hands through her hair as her heart pounded through her ears.

"Wendy…" Charlie began to protest once more.

"Someone help!"

The objections fell short as the new team stumbled into the clearing, a red headed leader sharply shouting the orders. "Wendy, help us!" Erza shouted, determinedly propping up the injured soul beside her even as she limped forwards. The sheer look of terror and pain was written across her face, though her own very obvious physical injuries didn't seem to be affecting her. She was not alone in her despair, however, with Jellal to one side cautiously standing close in case she collapsed and Milliana hesitantly behind her. On the other side, also carrying the fallen mage, was Wakaba, dragging forwards with all of his strength as a panic stricken Romeo rushed forwards.

"Dad… Dad hang in there please! Please!" He shouted.

Chaos erupted as Macao was passed from Erza to Lucy, who pretended that she had not seen the way Erza's legs buckled as soon as she was released of her precious delivery. The father was quickly laid with the rest of the severely injured, whispers of desperation drowned out by his son's pleading cries. Heartbroken, once Macao was on the ground, Lucy turned straight to Romeo and began to pull him back, letting the sky sisters tend to him as she pulled the terrified boy into her chest and let him cry.

It felt as if hours passed as the sky sisters desperately helped Macao cling to life. By the time that they both stopped, neither even knew if it had worked, but while their attention had been poured into the one wizard many more around them had crawled closer to death and permanent injury. It was a difficult decision for them both to stop, but an even harder one for Wendy to take a break.

Erza watched without complaint as the small girl disappeared to the furthest corner of the new camp. She curled herself into a ball, burying away as Lucy laid a blanket over her, kneeling by her side and gently whispering sweet nothings. It gave Erza a strange sense of comfort through the hell, even if she had not been the intended patient.

"Erza?"

She turned so suddenly her leg twisted painfully, unable to hide the reflex to grip it tightly and pull a face. She glared at herself, but stared up to her friend with a forgiving sigh. "I'm very glad to see you, Natsu," she whispered.

Natsu sat down beside her, an unfamiliar frown resting on his face as he saw the pain through her eyes. Instinctively he wanted to call for Wendy to take away her wounds, but glancing over to the two women in the corner he instantly knew better. "You too," he said, meaning the words more than any other he'd ever said. "What happened to Macao?"

Erza sighed heavily, her own gaze drifting to the unconscious father. "We found Wakaba and Romeo running from the offspring. It looks as if they cornered them all, but Macao was able to distract them long enough for the other two to leave," she looked back at Natsu, knowing that it was exactly the kind of explanation that he could accept and draw real pain from. "What about the others? I'm glad to see you, Lucy, Happy and Wendy are safe. There must be others?" She asked hopefully.

Natsu shrugged, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Yeah, there's a few. I saw Cana a bit ago, and Max? Mirajane, Elfman, Lisanna… Laxus too. They're all OK. Probably more that I haven't seen yet…"

"Gray?" Erza dared to ask.

Natsu shook his head. "Not yet."

Erza nodded. It hadn't been the answer she was hoping for, but it was better than it could have been. "I'll continue to search," she said, trying to stand and instantly wincing.

Natsu grabbed onto her arm, pulling her back down surprisingly easily as she fell heavily back against the fountain. "You're more useful here," he said honestly, knowing that she would be too stubborn to accept an instruction to stay put, just like himself. "Wendy and Sherria both need rest and they need people to cover whatever they can't. They've already been getting me and Happy to help. Besides, this place is lit up like a beacon now, they can find their own way here."

Erza didn't want to say that it was the ones that couldn't find their own way there that she was worried about, but she nodded and accepted that she could be of use without putting more strain on her injured leg. It had been badly broken even before the fight had begun, but she had powered through it and could do so again if needed, but it was clear from the strained faces around her that there was a place for her here too. Including Natsu, she noticed with a kind and sympathising smile. "You look exhausted…" She commented gently.

He gave a sheepish grin, unable to deny it. "Yeah, the fighting was the easy part."

The words rang true to Erza more than she ever could have expressed. Tiredly, she put her hand on his shoulders, wishing that she could tell him that it would be over soon. Even with the trauma that she had seen and the broken childhood she had experienced, nothing could have prepared her for the devastation they were experiencing now. They had been pulled from a moment of glory and placed straight into the heart of a war zone, and no matter how many battles or losses they had experienced this one would hang with them for many years ahead.

They stayed in silence, neither able to move nor willing to speak. It was the closest that either knew they could get to a real break while they were so determined to save the remaining lives, but both told themselves that they were being each other's comfort and allowed themselves to stay close for just a few more moments before disappearing in different directions.

While Erza began as instructed, flooding her passionate nature into making sure that everyone was warm, cleanly bandaged and secure, she discovered that everyone had the same questions that she did. Leadership instincts kicking in, she grew new resolve to gather the names of those who were missing, alive and dead. The numbers were growing by the hour and eventually by the minute, wizards drawn like moths to the giant light of the camp and it was impossible to gather the names of the coming and going.

Good luck finally fell upon them when Hibiki appeared. Though exhausted and suffering from a painful wound of his own, hearing Erza's determination to categorise the names, he gladly agreed and offered his magic to improve the process. Within minutes he had transferred every name into his personal database, offering it to anyone who asked.

"Why don't you send it out to everyone?" Lucy asked curiously as she finally forced him to sit down as she washed the blood from his head.

Hibiki held out his hands as he glanced up at the growing black clouds. "The names of the living I have no problem with sharing, or those of the missing. I don't think it's a very good way to hear about someone passing, however."

Lucy nodded and blushed, feeling silly for asking such a simply question. "No… I suppose it wouldn't be…" she whispered, wondering what her reaction would be if she saw anyone that she recognised on that list. Then she realised that she actually had no idea what was on the list. "Um, please can you share it with me? I'll get a lot of people asking and…"

He raised an eyebrow, the first few droplets of rain falling upon them. "Are you sure…?"

She hesitated, but nodded. She didn't want him to be fully responsible for the difficult task of spreading bad news, even if she didn't want to be the angel of death herself. At least, in a way, she would be helping. Suddenly, she glanced up, realising that more droplets of heavy rain were falling, despite the clear skies while they had been fighting the dragons. It must have been longer than she'd realised, she thought as she rubbed her face and began to feel her weakened muscles once more. "We need to get everyone inside…" She said quickly, knowing that there was no time now to receive the list, looking around and seeing that there were several members that were completely unable to move, including Macao.

Hibiki nodded, and alongside the rest of the new nurses and returning travellers one by one they pulled the wounded inside the half-destroyed buildings and underneath the remaining overhanging shops. The priority quickly began to shift as everyone realised that warmth was the new essential. The numbers of suffering joining were beginning to thin, as there were only so many left to find that had not already been drawn to the light, but even those who were safe were feeling the negative effects from the growing chill and their overworked endurance. From his latest returning journey, Natsu was once more forced to remain and create heat, and everyone was ordered to come back with as many blankets and kindling as possible.

The shadow dragon slayer hesitantly stepped forward through the rain.

The eyes of wizards from throughout the land looked back at same eyes that had been responsible for the deaths of their comrades. They hid back, shining reflections from every hidden corner with Natsu's flames bouncing back to them.

Rogue swallowed hard, turning back to his brother dragon slayer and silently pleading for him to give him the courage to step forwards. As silently requested, Sting's hand was on Rogue's shoulder, squeezing tightly before turning back to the others. In the rain and the shadows it was impossible to see what was judgement or acceptance, a hand raised in anger or a welcoming wave. Sting had the more optimistic view, even if Rogue clearly had the opposite, the light dragon slayer waving and pulling forwards their recovered comrade.

Almost everyone from the camp felt their heart bound at the sight of the Fairy Tail Master.

Erza ran forwards, but was shocked to see that even before she could stumble before the master Laxus was standing tall in front of him, staring down his grandfather. The rain pounded through their ears, no words said for a long time as the two family members looked upon one another. The master rubbed his moustache, stepping forwards. "I see you have some numbers here," he grumbled eventually.

"Gramps!" Natsu cried out, unable to hold back his happiness for another second as he bounded forwards. "You're OK!"

The master turned away. He was not OK, that much was clearly written across his face.

The dragon slayers spoke for him where he could not, Sting speaking with broken words as Rogue could only stare at the pile of bodies. "There's another camp about a mile out, but nothing as big as this," he said, listening to the hopeful gasps and whispers through the darkness. "We've got more people from all guilds there, and I guess a lot of them have been trying to meet with you."

Hibiki stepped forwards, ignoring as the rain began to soak into his new bandages. "We have a list of the missing, dead and living," he said. "We should compare as quickly as possible," he said sternly.

Sting nodded confidently, but Rogue's dark glance showed he understood the implication to the Archive Mage. "You don't want to give anyone false hope…" he whispered under his breath.

Hibiki nodded, no kindness in his eyes as they fell back upon Rogue's, though there was no hatred either. Only pain.

"Gramps, is everyone there?" Natsu asked quickly, realising that the rest of his friends were hanging onto his words with baited breath. "Is everyone from Fairy Tail safe?"

The Master sighed, his words barely carrying over the heavy droplets that dashed the streets. "No, Natsu, I'm afraid they're not."

The news came crashing down upon them all. Droy was the first member of Fairy Tail to have died, and suddenly the crushing reality that his friends were truly in danger was thrust against Natsu. They had already found so many of their comrades but there were more than a few in critical condition. Before, Natsu had been afraid but there had always been the lingering disbelief that they were going to be ok, and somehow everything was going to be ok. The first casualty brought that trail of thought to a screeching halt and suddenly each of the names on his list screamed at him louder than ever.

Even the good news seemed to be tainted in darkness. They had found Gajeel but he had fallen from the back of the dragon he was fighting, the distraction that Lucy realised had saved her life, but the fall had left him completely unable to move. Sherria volunteered to go to the second camp and spread the sky magic there, promising Wendy that she would take care of the Fairy Tail companions but knowing that she couldn't stay where she was. Sherry had been found near the second camp also, and while she was not in a critical condition she was unable to walk and join her cousin, and Sherria could not bring herself to not rush to her side.

The smaller camp had mostly comprised of Sabretooth and Lamia Scale members, which heartened Sherria to the point of tears. There had been a few of the more famous names of the guilds there who, like the first camp, had been spending most of their time searching the surrounding areas for more supplies and warmth. Natsu gave up listening to the details, caring only of who was alive and who was dead and who was at risk. And there was nothing he could do about any of it except recount his list.

Gray. Unintentionally bumped to the top of his list. Stupid Ice Block. Warren, who should have been telepathically communicating if he was anywhere but danger. Mentally, he swapped them around. Warren, then Gray. Then Juvia, he realised as the pair would probably come as a two for one. Then the Lightning Squad, which Laxus had been pursuing for hours with no results, and his nervousness was beginning to show. Jellal was panicking about his own guild, so then he placed Meredy and Ultear just below, not knowing how he could cope with losing his entire guild of redemption. His thoughts got blurry, trying to remember who else was lost. The Sabretooth Dragon Slayers had mentioned Minerva, Kagura and Arana were no where to be found, Eve was not yet with a guild, Sherria and Hibiki were still trying to analyse which of the Lamia Scale members were missing but they were certain they had lost at least Lyon and Natsu found himself thinking back to Gray and mentally swapping him back to the top of the list.

"Natsu…?" Lucy's arm was against Natsu's, quietly reminding him that he had already created his latest flame and had been burning through the precious kindling at an alarming rate.

He pulled back suddenly, rubbing his eyes as he instantly realised the mistake. "Aha, sorry Luce."

Lucy offered him a sad small, refusing to take her hand from his arm even after he stopped his flame. "Are you OK?" She whispered gently, before biting her lip. It was a foolish question to ask anyone right now, so she turned away. "I mean… I don't mean that. I just-"

"Yeah, I know," he said slowly, rising back to his feet. He didn't look at her as he spoke, his voice filled with a false happiness he struggled to believe. "Fairy Tail has pulled out of this better than any other guild so far, and we should be pretty damn proud of that." He paused, looking back to the broken streets. "I'm going back out there. There might even be a third camp that we don't know anything about."

Lucy bit her lip, not certain she shared his optimism but she certainly liked the idea of it. There were still many guild members from all sides that had not yet been found, either alive or dead, and there could be hope of another gathering or at least some larger groups. The skies still looked daunting, however. "Maybe you should wait until the rain has passed," she suggested, knowing that the injured were still in desperate need of his warmth and he still had a vacant look that was not only caused by emotional strain. "We could really do with you here, Natsu. Don't you think that you'd get farther if you rested a little longer?"

Natsu didn't care how much his body could take, he was determined to push himself until he had brought at least one more of his nakama home safely. He gripped the doorframe, staring out at the huge clouds and hearing the pain in Lucy's voice. She wanted him there for herself, and he didn't blame her. He wanted to be there for her too, wanted to be the glorious shining beacon of hope for all of Fairy Tail to follow, but the best way he could achieve that was with real results, real people to come home.

"That weird rain ain't letting up any time soon," Laxus murmured as he looked up. He had been out in the harsh weather longer than anyone, determined that he would find at least one of his closest nakama, knowing that every one of them would do the same for him. He had been ran to exhaustion and dragged back to the camp against his will, only just able to keep his body upright long enough to stare to the cloud covered stars.

"Weird rain…?" Natsu questioned, a haunting realisation creeping in.

Laxus shrugged, instantly regretting it as he twinged his aching shoulders. "Don't tell me your nose didn't pick up on it?"

Natsu's eyes shifted back to the sky, only now beginning to soak in the smell of the rain. Predicting the weather with only the power of scent was difficult but it was usually possible just before a heavy storm, but the dragon slayer had been caught completely unaware by the growing showers. He had been too busy to stare at the sky absently, but now he remembered flying through the air on the back of his giant fiery 'uncle' without a trace of moisture lingering in the air. Then, all of a sudden, the heavens had opened.

"Juvia…" Lucy realised before Natsu could say the name out loud, looking back quickly between Laxus and Natsu. "That means she's alive, right?!"

Natsu disappeared into the rain quickly.

Lucy blinked, surprised by the sudden reaction. She had expected some kind of victory, a celebration that one of their nakama had shown the first sign of life since the ordeal began, but Natsu had simply dashed into the darkness, running at full speed and taking no time against the splashing puddles. Lucy frowned, looking back at Laxus blankly.

Laxus leaned forwards, rubbing his aching shoulder with a defeated look in his eyes as he translated his fellow dragon slayer's sudden behaviour. "You're right. The rain means that Juvia is probably alive, but it also means that she's suffering."

Lucy put her hand on her mouth suddenly, eyes growing wide. She could feel her heart pounding suddenly in her chest, reminding her that she was still capable of feeling yet more pain as Laxus's words rang with more truth than she dared believe.

"You knew…" The pain-filled whisper echoed through the small building, laced with a daunting realisation twisting into a hot anger as Erza drew upon one of her beautiful swords, unflinchingly placing it against Laxus's neck. "You knew that this must have been Juvia's rain and you didn't tell him. You didn't tell any of us. Why wouldn't you say that?!" She yelled.

Laxus lazily raised his eyes up to Erza, unable to feel the fear from her blade when there was already very little left to destroy. "He's been helping. You all are. Do you know what my spending hours trying to find Freed, Bixslow and Eva achieved? Nothing," he shrugged, turning back away from her and leaning back against the overturned table. "It almost got me killed for nothing. I walked away from people who needed help, walked away from supplies that probably could have needed me, because all I wanted was to find them. Now what do you think he's gonna do, huh?"

Erza gritted her teeth tightly, her sword disappearing from her hand. She knew exactly what Natsu was going to do because she felt the need to do it herself. Her wounded leg and the pounding fear held her back, staring into the darkness. Natsu had told her that she was needed here, but she didn't feel that she could help anyone staring at rain. Slowly she twisted her body into a new requip, stepping out and letting the ice cold droplets of rain consume her.

Natsu was running far too fast for the injured requip wizard to keep up. His head was down, feet splashing through puddles unnoticed, in a haze of desperation running blindly without direction, only purpose. Juvia was in the middle of the storm, he knew that without doubt, and everything else was thoughts that refused to shout loud enough above the list of names to be heard.

"Natsu!" Happy called out.

He heard the voice, a grin crossing his face as he barely slowed his run enough for Happy to throw himself at his back. He couldn't be without his closest companion, whether heading to danger, heartache or victory. He found his footsteps slowing as the calming reassurance began to force him into thinking. "Happy, can you fly up and see if you can see where Juvia's creating the rain from?"

Happy gladly pulled himself up, his eyes bright at the mention of one of his friends. He had been more than half asleep as the Fairy Tail wizards discussed the weather, but now he was understanding at least part of the haste he jumped up shouting "Aye!". Quickly he flew up into the sky, spiralling and pushing his aching wings as hard as he could.

Natsu was left on the ground, wishing that he could keep running but knowing that he could be bounding in the complete opposite direction if he didn't wait for his exceed. 'Find Juvia, find Gray' raced through his mind. 'Maybe find others too. They'll not be alone.'

Happy swiftly rushed down, placing himself straight onto Natsu's shoulder. Natsu knew that that meant he was exhausted, unable to even walk as his heavy breathing was clearly heard by the dragon slayer. "It's hard to tell, but there's torches up ahead," he told him.

"Torches?" Natsu asked, already walking in the direction as fast as he dared while keeping Happy secure. "You mean there's a third camp?"

Happy nodded. "Aye!" He said, his voice wobbling. "But I couldn't find an easy way in. The whole area is surrounded by broken buildings. I tried to fly a little closer but it was so cold…" He murmured, burying into Natsu's neck.

"Cold?" Natsu asked. "You mean like Gray's Ice?" He said, instinctively running faster.

"I'm not sure. We're still missing Lyon and Eve too, aren't we?"

Natsu frowned, cursing himself to jumping to conclusions. Of course Juvia's rain was damn cold as well, sending an unnatural shiver down the flame wizard's neck. He hated the rain at the best of times, but hated it more when it meant one of his nakama was in pain. "Right," he said, cursing the rain yet again as he slipped in the puddles, almost crashing into the huge mound of rocks. He stopped himself just before he was thrown against the stone remnants of the building, pushing back against them to steady himself. He stayed there for a few moments too long, gasping for breath as his head began to spin. Lucy was right, he was weak and exhausted and now he could see tiny sparks in front of his eyes. He was in no position to be running away into the wet and desolate wasteland. Looking up at the mountain in front of him, he knew he was also in no position for climbing.

Before he could try to plan further, Happy's wings once more materialised and he was being lifted. He wanted to object, but Happy was more than capable of finding his own limits to push, and the two were lifted over the barrier.

Happy's wings gave out just before the ground and they both fell into the soft mud heavily. Natsu groaned, quickly by the exceed's side and scooping him into his arms. "Happy, are you ok?"

"A-aye…" The small cat whispered, burying into Natsu's chest.

Natsu smiled proudly, still on his own knees and looking at the new area. One of the huge dragons had spiralled through the buildings, causing the almost impassable river of debris that Happy had just flown over, but beyond the initial destruction the attacks seemed to be far more of the offspring than their larger counterparts. Perfectly empty circles, some of which were still smouldering in the damp air, were blasted out of buildings. Natsu tried to remember which guilds would have been fighting here but his mental map blended together through the carnage and his blind start.

It didn't matter anymore. He stood shakily, Happy wrapped into his arms, slowly becoming accustomed to the sounds that were piercing through the haze. Every step forwards hurt, but he could hear voices. Familiar voices. He took more steps forward, knowing that he was close to collapsing but he was so close to someone, someone alive and well and willing to lift his spirits. Someone very familiar.

It wasn't just one person. The Lightning Team rushed forwards as they saw the staggering dragon slayer, beaming smiles of disbelief at another survivor through the waste. "Natsu!" Bixslow said, his minions floating around him and repeating "Natsu! Natsu!"

If Natsu didn't think he was seeing double before, looking at the spiralling totems made him sure. It took him a few seconds to realise that these were friends, friends that they had been worried about, more names to scratch from his list. "Bickslow, Ever, Freed, you're all OK…" He said slowly.

"Is Happy..?" Freed asked hesitantly.

Natsu looked down at the tiny exceed in his arms, realising the implication and half laughing. "Yeah, he's just exhausted. Laxus has been looking for you all."

The energy pouring from the team was instant. "Laxus?!" Evergreen gasped, clasping her hands together.

"Is he alright?" Freed asked, suddenly grabbing Natsu by the arms and shaking him.

Natsu's whole body stumbled too far, shaking his head to dispel the sudden dizziness it caused. "Uh, yeah, he's fine," he said finally. "There's a whole bunch of us. Happy said he saw you guys have a camp here? Is everyone alright?"

The three suddenly looked at each other, each reluctant to speak. Natsu swallowed hard, wondering what was left to say, what could possibly be worse than the pain in his head.

"We do," Freed said eventually. "There aren't many of us there, but we've been trying to get to the main city. Cana said that there was an even bigger one in the centre."

Natsu swallowed, finding his mouth surprisingly dry despite the damp air. "That's where we've come from. There's another one in the west too," he said, breathing a sigh of relief that Cana was safely with the new camp. Though the fears were different now, he couldn't shake the instinct of pulling all of his nakama close and refusing to let them leave his sight. It had slightly confused him that she hadn't been able to let the Lightning Squad know that Laxus was safe, but he remembered how easily he had missed others when he had been so determined to protect the people he loved. He couldn't even recall the last time that he'd seen Cana, even when forced to stay and put his fire magic to good use.

But the thought of actually having a third camp lifted his spirits as high as they dared. It was the ray of hope that he had needed desperately, and opened the opportunity even for a fourth or fifth. There was the feeling now that they may have been closer to the end than the beginning and even with just the three in front of him now the list was drastically shorter. "We should go there, right?" He said, wondering why the three were still standing absently, exchanging glances between each other he couldn't quite read. "There's other people at the camp. You've got Juvia there, right? Is she alright?" He said, looking up at the rain and starting to walk in the direction that Happy had pointed to earlier.

"Natsu, there's something you need to know before you go," Freed said eventually, his face stern and unreadable.

Something about the tone of his voice told him that he didn't want to hear it. It was the same voice that the master had used when explaining Droy's death. It was serious, somber, with eyes cold enough to hold no escape. Natsu didn't want to turn back around to him. "Yeah?" He asked, swallowing hard.

"Natsu, Gray is dead."

Nothing could have prepared him for that. He looked from Freed, the barer of bad news, to his two companions that were standing either side of him. The first few seconds were a blur, and he must have been standing for some time before reacting as Evergreen put her hands together and whispered "We're so sorry, Natsu."

He didn't quite understand that, didn't understand why anyone would say that he was sorry for him. He didn't feel like he was any kind of person that people would come up to and say that they were empathising with when everyone was a part of the guild, everyone was friends with everyone, and the stupid ice block had never even intentionally been at the top of his list. He was never supposed to be at the top because he was never supposed to be there at all and even now it almost sounded ridiculous. "Wendy," he started falsely, swallowing hard and starting again. "Wendy and Sherria, they have magic, maybe they can-"

Bickslow shook his head quickly, cutting off his words. "They got him good, Natsu."

Seeing that Natsu was about to interject once more, Freed spoke again "Polyusica is with our camp, too. If there was anything that could be done, she would have said something," he said, trying to keep his voice calm for the sake of his friend.

"But there could be something else!" Natsu said, stepping forwards. "Something she doesn't know about, some kind of sky magic or something!"

"Natsu!" Freed spoke once more, his voice surprisingly stern even as he looked at him sadly.

Natsu realised that he had been yelling. He bit back his words, the sudden silence alerting him to the tiny moans of the exceed in his arms. He couldn't work out if his skin had been so hot it was burning, if he had been gripping tightly enough to hurt, or if the small cat was more awake than he seemed and whimpering to himself. Natsu held his companion more protectively, glancing back up and seeing that the three were giving him the same look he was giving to his friend. It was sympathy to the pain that they were causing him, the inbuilt nature of every member of Fairy Tail to protect one another. He still shook his head, turning on his heels and storming with more intent towards where they were supposed to find the camp. "You're wrong," he murmured. "There's something more we can do. Wendy can fix it."

"Natsu they shot him in the head," Bickslow said. Freed and Evergreen shot him a horrified look, but the tall wizard just shrugged his shoulders and explained "He needed to know."

Natsu stopped in his tracks. The words poured into him painfully, only just resisting the urge to shout 'so what?'. He knew what it meant, even if he couldn't bring himself to believe it. Slowly he turned back around, glancing back at Bickslow. The other two were looking between the blunt man and Natsu, clearly torn by their emotions, but either way Natsu couldn't fight the sadness in their eyes. He wanted nothing more than to ignore them, to ignore the sudden pounding in his head and the overwhelming sense of dread. Soon he would be hurting, soon everything would sink in and he would be racked with painful emotions, and the people around him weren't helping. They looked at him like he was going to crack, like his entire world was suddenly going to fall apart and he couldn't even keep their gaze for long.

Happy murmured again, his tiny paws clawing against Natsu's shirt, but this time he knew that he had been holding onto him too tightly. Natsu gritted his teeth, adjusting his grip but refusing to loosen his hold. "Right," he said eventually, staring at the ground. "And there are other people at the camp though, right? Other people who are alright…?"

Evergreen stepped forwards, trying to catch his eyes as she tilted her head to the side. "There are a few, yes. As we said, Cana is there. And Juvia. She isn't taking it well, but she seems to have good company," she said, holding out her hand and gesturing to the rain. "We have Warren at the camp too, he's unconscious but Polyusica says he should be fine in time. A lot from the other guilds too."

Natsu nodded, glad that she didn't go into much more detail. He wasn't sure that he could cope with any more information right now, though the knowledge that two more of Fairy Tail's nakama were safe filled something that had become an instant empty hole inside his chest. He let out a breath, turning back to the direction of the camp and knowing that if he didn't start now he'd never react it. "Shall we go?" he asked.

There was a hesitation the dragon slayer pretended to ignore, but eventually they all quickened their steps and walked in line with him, occasionally steering the direction as they reacted cross-roads and unusual twists in the broken road. It didn't take long for Natsu to see the lights ahead, dancing flames that struggled against the beating rain. He knew this was the place even before he could see the signs of life, feeling the rain beating against his skin painfully and with an unflinching certainty that Juvia's magic centred around this building.

They had been lucky enough to find one of the few standing buildings, though the door was still shattered it offered them some respite from the downpours. There were a few mostly blocked rooms, however, with only small portions of the walls taken down by the impact, and even more perfectly circular holes in the walls from the offspring's blasts. A blast that had gone through his friend's head. He was told that they had nicknamed this 'the cold camp', as it had Lyon, Eve and Juvia's magic twisting through the air and sending an undeniable chill right through to their bones. They mentioned that many had come to them but not returned and they suspected that many of the weaker mages that had leaned on their support simply couldn't handle to depressing drop in temperature.


	4. My Life and Yours

**Name:** My Life and Yours

 **Genre;** Prediction of Manga from 516

 **Background;** So obviously a little of this is outdated now, but not hugely. Some of the manga hasn't taken the same direction, some of it still has the ability to. We'll see. This one, again, ends a little abruptly, but i did tweak it so it added the theory of Mavis's Fairy Heart. I binge-wrote this because I was scared of losing the ideas before the manga shaped new ones, but most of the ideas in this I've had for months and I'd love to know if any of you had similar ones! But oh gosh the cheese. All the cheesy cheese. That was the main reason I couldn't bring myself to write this anymore!

* * *

 **Lucy Cares for Natsu**

"Natsu please, _please_ ," Lucy's tears spoke louder than her choked words as she stared at her beloved. Everyone's eyes were on the silent Slayer, but none were filled with more tears than Lucy and Happy's, sharing their pain even if they didn't even acknowledge each other's presence while such fear was in front of them. "I'm begging you, wake up," she said, her hands curled into tiny balls against his chest as her forehead leaned against his cold skin.

"Lucy-san?" Juvia pulled herself up uneasily, receiving gasps as everyone suddenly remembered that the injured water wizard was also by their side. She had a hand on her forehead, fingers curled around her bloody and sweat soaked blue hair. "Where is Juvia? What happened?" she asked.

"Juvia…!" Lucy breathed, sitting up a little more as her attention finally turned. "Are you alright?"

Juvia frowned, still feeling the pain running through her body but knowing now at least she would survive and would eventually have the strength to fight again. She glanced around, her heart quickly racing in her chest. "Where is Gray-Sama?" she asked.

Lucy blinked, at first wondering why she would ask such an obvious question before seeing that Juvia's hand was resting on the bedding that Gray had been lying on only minutes before. Perhaps it had been even longer than, their attention had been taken so absolutely by the Dragon Slayer's failing condition. "What? Where did he go?!" she asked, shocked he could move at all, never mind so silently that he hadn't disturbed even the obsessive water wizard.

Brandish tilted her head to the side curiously, watching the entire scene with a distance that no Fairy Tail mage could be possible of. "Is it possible he overheard the exceed and is trying to destroy Zeref in order to destroy END?" she asked.

Lucy gasped, the shock hitting her so hard that her entire body shook violently. "That-that can't be true!" she exclaimed loudly, far too loudly for her own justification. "Gray wouldn't do that to Natsu!"

Brandish's face tilted away more, not wishing to receive the blunt end of Lucy's anger for only speaking her observations. "Was he not just trying to kill him?" she asked absently.

Lucy's hands tightened into fists, the look of determination on her face beginning to waver. She could feel the cold chill from her friend's body beneath her, and knew that although Brandish had done a perfect job of healing whatever injuries were obvious, there would still be pain and exhaustion brought by the Ice Maker – or rather, the Iced Devil Slayer. She didn't like to think of them both as the same person right now, not after seeing Natsu fall to the floor before him. "He stopped…" Lucy tried to justify, her voice shaking as new tears fell from her eyes. "He wouldn't hurt Natsu, I know he wouldn't. I know that they fight. But he is a Fairy Tail mage, and I have to believe in him. Because I know that Natsu does."

Brandish wasn't going to argue. She said her piece and shrugged her shoulder, but it was clear that her opinion was shared by some of the others.

Ever looked between each of her nakama and the two spriggan, a frown on her face as she pushed back her glasses. "Is this really a gamble that we can afford to take right now?" she asked.

"There is a chance that he is not making his own decisions," Polyusica explained slowly, receiving stunned and horrified looks from across the room. "Gray came to me when he first received the Devil Slayer magic. The markings were troubling, but there was something deeper. The magic is bonding with his soul. I warned him that if he continues to use it at such an alarming rate it will consume everything he is."

Lucy's eyes grew wider. "You mean…?"

Polyusica nodded. "The Demon Slayer magic may be taking control."

"Juvia… must find her Gray-sama…" Juvia murmured, pulling herself to her feet as she wobbled dangerously.

Polyusica was quickly to her side, holding her before she could collapse completely. "You're not in any state to go anywhere right now," she snapped at her, trying to force her back to her bed, but the water mage was trying her hardest to push past her. "This is a battle-field, you'll be killed if you try to go before you're at full strength."

"But Gray-sama… won't be at full strength either…" Juvia tried to argue.

"I'll go with you," Brandish said, her arms folded across her chest as everyone turned, surprised by her sudden acceptance and willingness to help. "You won't be in any danger by my side, but if Gray is really going to try and kill the emperor it is my duty to stop him," she explained, knowing that she couldn't be trusted but whichever side she fought for her motives would be the same.

Lucy hesitated. She found herself believing in Brandish more than she knew she should have, wishing that she could explain exactly why she was so drawn to what should have been her closest friend if fate had been favourable, but she wasn't a fool. She knew that Brandish was a Spriggan, the mark was still against her skin and she had limited loyalty towards Fairy Tail. "Please, don't hurt him," she begged as she gave her permission, her hand wrapped around Natsu's tightly.

"I make no promises," she said to Lucy, ignoring the dangerous look that Juvia was giving her.

 **Erza Cares for Wendy**

Erza gasped, falling to her knees as her mother fell before her. Her eyes were wide, heart racing in her chest so hard that she felt it would be ripped out, and not only from physical exhaustion. Eileen may not have been a part of her life but the knowledge of her mother and the abandonment that she had faced still hurt more than she could have ever expected. Her pain ran deep through her soul with a wild look in her eyes, knowing that she couldn't even feel the warmth of the master there to offer her the family replacement that had twisted before her eyes.

Over her heavy breathing and racing heart she began to hear something. There was screaming, sobbing, and for a moment she thought it was her own. She glanced up, seeing the smallest Dragon Slayer wrapped into a tight ball and holding onto her injured leg as tears poured down her face.

Slowly, Erza crawled to her friend. "Wendy?" she whispered, hesitantly putting a hand on her shoulder.

"It hurts…" Wendy whimpered, pulling herself up and wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry I wasn't stronger or braver, Erza-san. I wanted to show you that I could protect myself."

Erza looked surprised, remembering the last conversation between the requip wizard and the Dragon Slayer. Just like then, she grabbed her shoulders tightly and pulled her quickly into her huge breasts, arms wrapped around her with a soft smile. "You should be exceptionally proud, Wendy," she said truthfully. "I couldn't have done it without you."

Wendy's eyes glistened with tears, unsure whether she fully believed Erza but she knew that her heart was pure. She tightened her grip, gladly burying deeper into her chest. "Thank you... Master Erza…" she whispered.

Erza's eyes grew wide. She wasn't ready to be the new master, she had only ever filled in the position temporarily and the kind statement stung her like a blade. Her master, the man who had cared for her as a father, was gone, but Fairy Tail remained and they needed her strength. Wizard's like Wendy would always need a strong and guiding light. She took the rare moment of serenity within the battle field to put her hand on the young slayer's hair, to let herself watch her with a comforting smile and allow her to take whatever strength she needed. Slayers were always the most adaptable when it came to drawing upon each other's strength.

 **Natsu Talks with his Fathers**

Natsu looked down from his father's huge flaming shadow, unable to look him in the eye even after the years of wanting nothing more than to see him. The words he said were now painful, seeing him was painful even if he knew there was supposed to be some comfort in knowing even if he died now he would be once again by his father's side.

Just as he was starting to become familiar with the presence of his old man, the swirling winds of his mind magic reared once more and it was replaced by another father figure. This one was much smaller, the loss far more fresh as Natsu turned away more violently, tears in his eyes knowing he was there even before a single word was uttered.

"All great wizards die one day, and that is a blessing," Makarov's gravelling voice washed over the blank landscape, twisting through Natsu's soul. "Life and death are what keeps us sane, or else we become like your brother. Immortality is what many strive for but it is not a gift."

Natsu's body shuddered, unable to draw upon his usual anger with the crushing sadness. "It's too soon," he said. "I don't want to die, I don't want any of my friends to die. This is because of me. All of this is because Zeref wants to destroy me. I want to be there to protect them," he said, his fist gripping tighter as he tried desperately to pull on the ray of hope that usually kept his heart warm. But he was cold now, a cold that tore through his body unpleasantly wrapping around his heart.

"There is one last piece to this puzzle," Makarov said knowingly, brushing his moustache as he reluctantly spoke. "The demon seed inside of you is growing and merging with the Dragon Slayer seed, this is killing you. But that demon seed is directly linked to Zeref's immortality. It is true, if Zeref dies you will die. But if you die, Natsu, Zeref will finally become mortal again."

 **Gray Meets Zeref**

Gray was unrelenting as he pressed forwards, a determined look in his eyes as he knew his only goal. His skin was perfectly white now, his guild mark showing in its purest of blue colours between the twists of his bandages. Even during their fight to the death, somehow Natsu had had the common sense to not even attempt a scratch against his guildmark. He wasn't certain if it was luck or something deep inside of the Dragon Slayer that had not lost his sense of self, even when all else was lost.

The first wave of enemies approached, but the Devil Slayer had little patience for them. He pushed his geysers forwards, separating the crowds of armies with a single swipe of his magic and watched the horror in their faces. The expression on his face was enough to terrify, no longer caring for life or death, beyond even his own sense of pain as he paid little mind to the blasts of energy that came dangerously close. He had met his end to similar weapons before and he had nothing left to fear from them, instead returning his own deadly lances straight to the enemies.

"Zeref!" he called loudly, pushing back the enemy forces. There were some that would be able to teleport past his huge glassy walls, but the numbers would be staggered and thin, easy pray to the fierce Fairy Tail fighter. He wanted to lose as little power as possible before facing the dark emperor, and a frown was crossing his face. Natsu had faced him this way, and he was determined to get an audience with the leader. "Zeref, show yourself you coward!" he hollered across the vast valley.

Gently the dark winds gathered behind him, the scent of death in the air. Gray turned suddenly, eyes wide as the enemy materialised in front of him and for the first time able to see not only the emperor before him, but also the Dragneel. He felt himself cursing his own blindness, his newly heightened senses taking in everything from the familiar smell to the curve of his eyes. "Zeref," he growled.

Zeref had a small and confident smile on his face. The war had been waging for a long time now and he barely bore a scratch, while he could see the new enemy before him was battered and bruised to the point it was an amazing feat he was even still standing. But then he knew best to underestimate this particular wizard. "You are the one who took Memento Mori," he remembered, even if he couldn't recall his name.

Gray's frown deepened, remembering their last moment as he first felt the overpowering demon slayer bond twisting darkness across his skin. He could feel it wavering inside of him now, ready to latch out and consume his body once more but he held it back. He needed a clear head and he couldn't let himself fold into the comforting black curse. "I am Gray Fullbuster. And I will be the one to stop you," he said, determination flaring in his eyes as he threw forwards his first attack.

Zeref dodged backwards, his own eyes glimmering as he felt the impressive power pushing through the land around him and submerging the world into cold. It was completely different to the hot magic that he had been fighting earlier, losing himself in thought as attack after attack came hurtling towards him and he continued to dodge out of the way. As his own fist came slamming into Gray's back and he watched him crumple forwards, he spoke his curiosities aloud, "Your ice magic is different to Invel's."

Gray cried out in pain, feeling his wounds opening once again. Brandish had shrunk most of his injuries to nothing, including the one that was supposed to have taken his life, but he could still feel their ache and pain. The magic that Zeref had was phenomenal, every crushing blow enhanced with black magic and the terrifying realisation that he could have killed him in a moment. He was playing with him, driven by curiosity, which was exactly what Gray needed. He knew he didn't have the power to defeat him in a fair fight and would take any blessing possible. He turned quickly, his boot slamming straight against where he thought that the cursed wizard should be standing and instead finding nothing but air.

Zeref smiled to himself, hearing the screams and lack of an answer from Gray and surmising that he was trying to extend his own life. While the enemy posed little threat and Zeref was ready to unleash his Arkharam curse at a moment's notice, he was content, occupying himself with once again pushing his dark energy attack against Gray's back. "This is Devil Slayer Ice, isn't it?" he questioned.

Gray's eyes grew wide. He could feel the pain running through his body, but he was jolted by Zeref's words. He hadn't used his Devil Slayer magic once, the black tattoo on his arm the only sign of the lost magic which flowed through his body, and somehow Zeref had been able to see through it. He couldn't bring himself to move, temporarily frozen as Zeref sent him hurtling across the battlefield.

"I understand," the dark lord said as he watched the dust settle around the ice wizard, his expression cold and unflinching. "Slayer magic is a dangerous yet powerful tool. Without the correct anti-particles or immunity, your body will eventually break down. Perhaps you have already felt it, the darkness inside of your mind, blocking your rational thoughts. It will only get worse. Stopping yourself from using this power will slow it down, but it will not stop until eventually it either kills you or controls you. You do not strike me as the kind to die so easily. I believe – no, I am certain – you will become demonic. You will become the thing that you hate the most."

 **Natsu is Challenged**

Natsu fell to his knees. Not only was his death imminent, it was necessary. He had been willing to give his life to end Zeref's before, but now that he was staring at it and feeling the two seeds inside of him twisting and combining he could feel the chill of horror taking over him.

Slowly, he could once again feel the shape twisting in front of him. He didn't want to see anyone else that he cared about before him, he didn't want to know who else was going to die because of the sibling rivalry. He turned away, looking down, and unintentionally meeting the eyes of the small exceed.

"I don't want you to die, Natsu," Happy said to him, his eyes wide and streaming with heavy tears.

Natsu shivered, throwing his sleeve over his eyes and burying his tears into his arm. "You're not really here, Happy. You're just my imagination," he shouted, finally understanding.

"But I'm waiting for you," Happy shouted back, walking forwards and putting a paw out to Natsu. "You promised me! You said you'd find another way!"

"There isn't another way!" Natsu yelled at the top of his voice, closing his eyes tightly.

"There is always another way," Erza said to him, the tiny paw of the exceed now replaced by her hand. Her words were strong and surprisingly soft and he could feel that her face was close to his, almost touching against the arm which he used to block her from sight. He couldn't escape the knowledge of his own mind's eye, however, and she continued to stare at him. "Right now, all of Fairy Tail is out there fighting for you. They may not know it yet, but even if they did their hearts wouldn't waver. There is another way, somewhere deep inside it and you know it. This is why you're speaking to us now, we are trying to tell you something."

Natsu shivered, falling forwards and feeling that the woman in front of him was changing yet again. He couldn't keep up, his heart racing quickly in his chest as the impending doom toppled over him. "I'm dying! That's what Igneel said! That's what Gramps said! I can feel that I'm dying!" he said, clutching onto his chest and fighting the cold.

"So? Are you just going to give up?" Gray's voice washed over him.

Natsu looked up with wide lost eyes before frowning angrily. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Gray rolled his eyes. "Have you seriously not got this yet…?"

Natsu growled, gripping the ground fiercely. "There's _no_ way you're a part of me, Popsicle!"

Gray smirked, seeing the Dragon Slayer had at least been able to snap himself out of his depression long enough to throw insults. He was a part of Natsu, but this was the part that knew that he sometimes needed someone to lure him into his own competitive fire in a way that only the cold could. "I'll ask you again. Are you just going to give up?" he asked him.

Natsu paused, realising that even if he couldn't justify Gray being here he could still listen. His eyes were wide, the drop of hope sinking into his pit of despair. "What?" he asked, barely able to hear.

"Are you just going to let me win?" Gray asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked down at the Dragon Slayer on his knees. "I wanted you to die, are you going to let me win?"

Natsu gritted his teeth, jumping up to his feet. "Like hell I am!"

The image of Gray swirled before him, the strong and beautiful blond taking his place as she met his determination with her own. "Then you need to listen to me very closely, Natsu," Lucy offered, holding out her hand to him, "And don't let go."

 **Gray is Determined**

Gray gritted his teeth hard, pulling himself up. His entire body wavered, almost toppling straight back into the ground, taking every ounce of strength he had to look squarely at Zeref. Something inside of him was bleeding and the blood was dripping from his lip, but the pain was manageable compared to that he wanted to give this dark lord. The one that had created the demon that had destroyed his parents, his home, the darkness that had taken not one but two of his masters. "What of it?" he asked, the hatred in his eyes unflinching as he glared back at him. "Even if I have to become a demon to overcome you, that's what I will do," he said, rushing forwards and slamming his body against Zeref's.

Zeref was caught off-guard, eyes wide as he was thrown backwards. Gray didn't have an advantage, but in this moment he was throwing more successful punches than misses despite his quickly deteriorating condition. "So, you plan to take yourself out in a blaze of glory before you turn?" Zeref questioned as he felt yet another successful punch against his chest, throwing his own forwards and sending the Ice Maker skidding backwards. Looking at him now, he could see the Devil Slayer's skin had finally turned black, the curling tattoo tracing up his arm and spreading up to his face. "Do you think that you're the first Slayer to throw themselves on the sword?"

Gray hissed, swapping to his ranged attacks without a moment's hesitation as the distance was placed between himself and Zeref. He knew that he wasn't winning, and he still had no chance of succeeding in this way but he wasn't giving up yet. "You have no idea what I'm capable of," he breathed, hurtling his iced cannon towards the enemy.

Zeref jumped up, the iced weapon grasping onto his legs at the last moment and pinning him in place. He cursed, knowing that he would be in for a world of pain, but it wouldn't be long until the ice melted and the tables were once again turned. "Need I remind you that I'm immortal. You have no way of killing me," he glared. "And even if you could, you would be murdering your friend. If I die, Natsu dies."

Gray smirked, a grim desperation leaking sadness into his eyes. "Who said anything about killing you?" he said, positioning himself for his most powerful of Ice Make attacks.

 **Natsu Wakes Up**

Lucy leaned close against the Dragon Slayer, trying her hardest to push her body heat into him. The longer she waited the colder he became until it felt even like her own tears had frozen. The worried looks had disappeared into their own exhaustion. Their captive was beyond interested, Ever was in a tight ball and letting her head tilt forwards, Polyusica only occasionally moved around to see if there was anything more to do for the Dragon Slayer. Lucy sighed, feeling her tears against his chest. "Natsu, I can't imagine Fairy Tail without you," she whispered under her breath. "I can't imagine another day of going to the guild if you weren't there. If it wasn't for you, I would never have joined, I never would have made such amazing friends and… I need you. Please wake up. Please," she begged him.

A single tear hit his chest and hissed.

She blinked, staring at the teardrop as it disintegrated into hot steam. Suddenly she could feel it, the cold was coming from her own cheek instead of from the chest she was resting against and it was warming quickly. "Natsu?" she whispered, barely able to believe what she feeling as she leaned upwards.

Suddenly, his eyes were open and wide, sitting up with a start.

"Natsu!" Happy cried out, flying into his chest and hitting the Dragon Slayer heavily.

Natsu looked around, his hand instinctively around Happy as he buried himself deep against his chest. The images of his friends, comrades and family were replaying in his mind, trying to pinpoint what had been a magical message and what had just been a dream. "Happy…" he whispered to his exceed.

"Nastu!" Lucy exclaimed, new tears appearing in her eyes. "You need to stop scaring us like that, you know," she told him, trying to let her new happiness give her bravery.

It wasn't the familiar goofy smile that crossed his face when he looked at Lucy, however, and instead he leaned closer. His forehead rested against hers, staring at her with a strangely serious look on his face. "I know what we have to do."

Lucy looked back at him, her heart suddenly racing in her chest even faster than when she had been filled with terror. Something about his closeness was both terrifying and exhilarating, feeling his hand against her hair and unable to take her eyes from his. He could apparently take his eyes off hers, however, as he suddenly exclaimed, "Uh, Lucy, why are you naked?" with a growing smile.

Lucy screamed, suddenly remembering to cover herself and grabbing the blanket that had been wrapped around Natsu and instead wrapping it around herself. "Don't look, pervert!" she yelled loudly.

"Huh?" Natsu tilted his head to the side, genuinely confused. "Wait, why am _I_ naked?!"

Lucy blushed even more deeply. "It was-I-uh-" she stuttered.

"I didn't think she'd actually _do_ it," Polyusica whispered loudly to Ever.

 **Mavis Heads Towards Zeref**

Mavis gasped, her heart heavy in her chest as she disappeared out of sight from both friend and foe. She didn't dare let herself open to either as the tears rolled down her face. Makarov was dead, and she knew in her heart that it was because of her own weakness. It was because of this weakness that there were people from all over Fiore fighting, dying, living the nightmares that would haunt them all for the rest of her life. All because of her wavering heart. She put her hand on her chest, feeling her sobs running through her body and continuing to walk forwards as the harsh ground bit into her bare feet painfully. She hadn't walked for over a hundred years and now she was walking on jagged rocks. She hadn't held a single breath and now her body was wracked with painful sobbing. She hadn't felt the sunshine or heard a voice or saw a smile or smelt a flower and now she was surrounded by death. It felt like being surrounded by her killing curse for the very first time all over again.

That was another reason she couldn't trust herself with her allies. She remembered the fear in Zeref's eyes when they had first met, the fear that she had learnt with the deaths of so many. The curse was still rippling under her skin, hiding but not lost. There would be only one that she should grant death to, if only she could.

She raised her head, staring in the distance and feeling the calculations and magical energy rushing through her. Zeref would be to the West, so her bleeding feet would continue West. She would end this now.

 **Natsu Finally Realises**

Natsu's clothes were back on by the time that Poluyusica and Lucy explained exactly what had happened to him from their own perspective. Natsu frowned as he listened, occupying himself with replacing his clothes and examining the new bandages across his body and flexing the aches and pains that had overcome him. He didn't understand exactly what he had dreamt and what had been real, the entire vision had felt like a mixture of both, and he didn't dare confuse or concern his friends.

Happy leaned forwards, finally burning with his own guilt as he suddenly exclaimed. "I'm sorry, Natsu!" Natsu looked at him blankly, but the exceed couldn't see through the tears in his eyes. "I had to tell them about Zeref! I couldn't let them kill him! I couldn't let you die!"

Natsu looked shocked, staring back at the blue exceed and unable to deny that for a split second it felt as if he'd been stabbed in the back. The emotion disappeared as quickly as it arrived, however, seeing the pain in his eyes as he gripped onto Natsu's trousers and let his tears soak into the black material. His hand was on Happy's head, a warming smile on his face. "It's OK," he said. "I should have told everyone from the start. I know it's pretty confusing, and I didn't really understand it, but I guess now I do a little more."

"It was foolish to say it at all," Dimaria whispered under her malicious grin, a sense of victory in her eyes as she looked at the downfall of her enemies. Her expression filled with hatred as she looked at Natsu, and even a subtle touch of terror, but as she leaned forwards her eyes glistened with expectation. "Your little 'friend' is already out there making the most of your weakness, but in fact he's making his way straight to the jaws of death."

Natsu's grip tightened, feeling the dread that she predicted even if he couldn't understand why. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"We think that Gray overheard and is trying to kill Zeref himself," Lucy explained to Natsu, her voice soft and sympathetic as she watched Natsu's reaction carefully. "He took off not long after Happy said it."

Natsu's eyes grew wider. "He wouldn't!"

"That's what I said at first," Lucy sighed, looking away and wringing her hands together awkwardly. "But then, he was so determined, and-"

"Lucy," Natsu cut her off suddenly, grabbing onto her arms and digging in his fingers tightly as her face was pulled close to hers. "He _wouldn't_ ," he said, remembering vividly the look on his friend's face as the demonic power released its hold upon him and sank him back into sanity. He saw the same look echoed across Gray's face, the expression in his eyes as he looked at a childhood friend.

Lucy trembled under his touch, not sure whether she wanted to warn Natsu that he sounded deep in denial or follow his lead and believe in Gray. She sorely wanted to. "I-I don't understand…" she whispered, looking at Natsu's eyes and pleading for answers she knew he couldn't possess. "I want to believe he would do anything to protect you, but why would he run off knowing Zeref's death would kill you?"

Natsu could feel his heart stop suddenly. "I know what he's going to do," he said, his voice as cold as the magic he dreaded. "We have to stop him."

 **Brandish and Juvia Try to Find Gray**

Brandish and Juvia continued their walk, seeing the cold devastation that the Ice Maker had left on his path towards Zeref. "Juvia must see Gray-sama… Gray-sama needs her Juvia…" she was muttering to herself under her heavy breathing, every step more difficult than the last.

Brandish didn't want to hear about how much the woman beside her was in love with yet another stranger. She had some lingering loyalties towards Happy, Lucy and Natsu and she wasn't exactly sure how she had got herself babysitting the sick rain woman. She appeared delusional to Brandish, who was completely unused to her usual lovesickness. "Do I need to remind you that I'm only here to protect the emperor?" she said, turning back to the path ahead. "If your 'Gray-Sama' has full intention of destroying him and I believe he may be capable, I may have to kill him."

Juvia's eyes grew wide. "You wouldn't-"

"Don't mistake me," Brandish said, a dangerous flicker in her eyes. "The only reason you are alive is because I have no real reason to put you out of your misery," she said, her voice hollow and restless. "But if your 'boyfriend' is a threat to Alverez then I will have no choice."

Juvia's face burned bright red, disappearing into her fantasy world. "Juvia's… boyfriend…?"

Brandish didn't even have the energy to roll her eyes, but in that moment her attention was otherwise caught. She looked forwards, feeling the wave of cold energy across them and the familiar echo of Ice Make magic. A frown crossed her face, looking at the horizon and seeing the sheer distance of land between the dark lord and their position. "He must not have gotten far," she murmured.

Juvia stumbled forwards, her eyes wide but not filled with the same joy that she had expected upon seeing her beloved. The air was cold but she couldn't feel the same spark inside of her chest. It still pounded heavily, however, as a new sense of joy came as she rushed forwards. "Lyon-san!" she exclaimed, finally coming close enough to see the second Ice Maker. "And Meredy!"

Lyon and Meredy had clearly seen better days, a few new scars clearly visible on the Ice Maker's body but doing nothing to hide the smile on his face upon seeing the water wizard. Juvia's arms were quickly in his hands, staring at her in disbelief and pure relief. "Juvia, you're safe," he said, though he took another look at her and thought to retract his statement. "You're wounded…" he commented, preparing a cooling balm for her reopened laceration.

Juvia's lips turned to a thin straight line, staring back at him. "Juvia is fine," she assured him coldly. "Juvia needs to find Gray-sama. Have you seen him?" she asked quickly.

Lyon looked at her and looked back at Brandish, resisting the urge to throw himself between them and protect the woman he loved. Brandish seemed to be paying very little attention to them, however, and Juvia seemed less than worried by her presence. Eventually he shook his head. "The last time I saw Gray he was with you," he admitted.

Suddenly the cold in the air took a sharp spike downwards. The earth seemed to tremble, an unholy shiver beneath their feet. Even Brandish looked alarm at the sudden rise in magical energy twisting through the air, and the sudden heart-wrenching silence which enveloped the land. "What is it this time?!" Juvia called out, holding onto her head.

"Is this another of the Spriggan's spells?!" Meredy questioned, looking all around her for the impending attack.

Lyon's terror flashed wildly in his eyes. He was senseless, frozen by the impending fear and the terrifying flashbacks that were returning to him with vivid pain. "No… This feeling… It can't be…" he stammered.

"Lyon-san?" Juvia questioned, staring back at the only man who seemed to hold answers.

Lyon's head raised to look into her eyes uneasily, a disbelief but horror overcoming him. "This magical energy, I've felt it before. This is the spell that killed Ur. Gray is casting Iced Shell."

 **Gray Makes a Choice**

Gray's arms were crossed, the magical energy pouring through his veins as he kept his eyes pinned on his target. Zeref was still pinned under the ice magic but he knew that it wouldn't last long, and Iced Shell was a long and difficult spell to cast. He gritted his teeth hard, feeling his magic ripping away from his muscles and tearing through his soul and wondering if his final iced creation would still be able to feel pain.

Zeref looked at the new enemy in disbelief, unsure how he ever could have so drastically miscalculated. He was impressed, but there was a new and growing fear that he hadn't even known he could possess. "I won't be trapped in this world for eternity," he panted heavily, realising that Gray was stealing his last wish to die. "My Spriggan will come to my aid and they will release me! This changes nothing!"

"Moon Drip?" Gray questioned, a small smile appearing on his face as he saw the surprise on Zeref's face that he knew of the ancient technique. Clearly, he didn't pay too much attention to his demons once they had left his library. "Usually, yes. That would melt Iced Shell, in time, but Moon Drip affects demons differently. Moon Drip melts Demon Slayer Ice far slower than any other form," he said, remembering the flask of the precious liquid against Sun Village after his father had frozen the entire land. "More than this, Moon Drip affects the memories of demons. Even if you are resurrected in time, your memories will be sapped by the reversal spell."

Zeref lowered his eyes into a glare. There would be other ways, other Spriggan that would find new ways to release him from the cage that Gray was going to inflict upon him but time was more of a factor than it ever had been. In this time Natsu was at his strongest and this was the only time that he could offer him the sweet release of death. Acnologia was still lying in rest, ready to pounce at an opportunity of weakness. For the first time in several centuries, time finally mattered to the immortal. "You would spend your life to stop me?" he questioned.

The light around the Ice Maker grew stronger, the swirling ice around him brighter as the magic was beginning to form. His body was dropping in temperature, hairline cracks appearing across his body and deepening with every moment he stared. His eyes opened, once again staring back to Zeref. "I promised my old man that I would destroy END. So I'm giving my life to make sure that you can't have him. I'm not spending my life to stop you, I'm spending my life to save Fairy Tail!"

He closed his eyes for the briefest of moments. " _I'm sorry, Natsu,"_ Gray thought, his voice projecting over the battlefields to where he believed the Dragon Slayer still rested unconscious. " _I know I promised you that I wouldn't use this spell. I don't want to die, but I can't watch you die. This is the only way to stop him without killing you."_

"Ice Block, don't be an idiot!" a voice called from the sky.

Gray's eyes suddenly flew back open, drifting upwards. His magic was fluctuating in his body, ready to explode at any moment, but his attention was suddenly straight towards the irritating Dragon Slayer flying above him. Dragon Slayer _s_. His eyes crossed from Natsu to Wendy, Happy and Charlie on each of their backs as they all looked down at him expectantly. He recognised the look in Natsu's eyes, recognised the sentiment and the heartache, and turned his attention back to Zeref. "This is the only way," he whispered.

"There's always another way!" Natsu yelled back across the valley, hearing his soft words easily with his dragon hearing.

Gray gritted his teeth tightly, the blue magic crackling around him. This wasn't an argument that he wanted to be having right now, but he could feel a tear running down his cheek. "Didn't my voice reach you, Natsu?!" he shouted suddenly, all of the terrifying fear and anguishing pain finally flooding into his voice, his trembling determination stopping the Dragon Slayer in his tracks. "I don't want you to die!"

Natsu's eyes grew wide, recognising his own words thrown back to him. ' _I stopped you earlier because I didn't want you to die. Didn't my voice reach you?'_ It felt like an age ago, they felt nothing like the two boys that had spent their days fighting, laughing and fighting some more. There were some things that would never change, however. Their pride for their guild, the loyalty in their fists and the protectiveness in their hearts. "Happy!" Natsu shouted as the cat pounded forwards, hurtling them both through the air.

 _"I'm sorry, Natsu, you're too late,"_ Gray thought, his eyes closing as spell enveloped him in the beautiful light, his face splintering into ice.

"No, I'm afraid it is you that is too late."

Gray's eyes suddenly flew open. Zeref's words were all around him and suddenly he could see the blinding blue light of his final spell fighting against a smothering darkness. Zeref had not moved from the spot, but between the dark shadows he could see that he was holding onto his head, a trickle of sweat running down his face as the black mass spiralled and overcame them all. It only lasted for a second, a sudden explosion to rival his own, as his eyes were thrown even wider and were unable to close.

In less than a second, the darkness and light shimmered into nothingness. The world was once again still. The ice beneath Zeref's feet cracked and fell helplessly around him against the black earth. The blue markings underneath the Gray's feet faded to nothing. And he began to fall.

"Gray!" Natsu yelled, Happy pushing even harder forwards as they made the final decent to the ground. He swung into the Ice Maker's side, clutching him tightly as the Dragon Slayer and exceed skidded across the ground, protectively holding him close to his chest as the rocks and debris tore through his own skin. Even still, the Ice Maker's bare skin was nothing to the shrapnel and it tore red marks through him easily. It wasn't enough to worry Natsu, however, not when he was holding onto a still and cold body in his arms. "Gray! Gray wake up!" he screamed, tears already in his eyes as he felt the overwhelming power of darkness from the black circle below them.

The dark lord put a hand on his forehead, for a moment almost appearing ashamed of the deadly curse that he had inflicted. "Ankhseram leaves no survivors," he said, his voice low.

Natsu's eyes shot up to his elder brother, a look that could kill as he stared back at him. Zeref wasn't approaching or using this opportunity to come closer, either through respect or confidence, but either way it tore through Natsu's anger. He could hear Wendy by his side, feel the familiar comforting healing magic twisting through the air as she spoke her soft prayers for the Ice Maker in his arms. He could feel Gray's sightless eyes staring at him even as he refused to break eye contact with the dark emperor, his grip tightening. "You bastard!" he hissed to his brother.

Zeref's hands were open, almost in a display of peace as he stayed firmly rooted to the spot. This was the curse he lived with his entire life and he had long since become dulled to its affects, but seeing through his little brother's despair made mercy that little stronger. "Do you really think this curse could have been cured by sky magic?" he said, a sadness he thought forgotten still in his eyes. "If that had been the case, my suffering would have been made so much easier."

Natsu gritted his fangs angrily, dropping the lost friend to the ground as the flames blazed around him. "You don't know the meaning of suffering yet!" he screamed, pouncing forwards as his eternal flame whispered around him, fist pointed straight towards Zeref.

 **Holding a Captive**

Erza's eyes opened slowly. She didn't remember exactly when she lost consciousness, but it must have been while holding onto the small Dragon Slayer as she was the last thing she could remember. The visions blurred together as she had fallen to the ground, thinking for a moment that she had been able to hear Natsu's voice.

"Erza, you're awake!" Lucy exclaimed, her voice filled with new relief.

Erza sat up slowly, a hand on her head and feeling yet more bandages striping her body. The images of war, anger, death and the brink of destruction were now flooding back to her. This was the second time she had woken in this way so far, but as she looked up at Lucy she couldn't see the same beaming grin that Gray had given her last time. This time victory, if there was any victory at all, was bitter. "What's happening? Where is Wendy?" she said, lifting herself up but suddenly crying out in pain.

"You mustn't move yet," Polyusica said sternly, her hand firmly pressed on Erza's shoulder as she gave her a warning look.

"Wendy is with Natsu," Lucy said, remembering just how injured the poor Sky Dragon had been. She had insisted on going with Natsu with her exceed, who looked just as injured as she did, but Charlie had the look on her face when she had a terrifying premonition and Wendy simply couldn't ignore that. "They've both gone to… to find Zeref."

Erza's eyes grew wider. "What?" she breathed, the image of the injured girl racing through her mind and the thought of her fighting the most powerful wizard in Earthland right now filled her with terror.

"They think that Gray is going to try and cast Iced Shell on Zeref. They're trying to stop him before he can," Lucy said, realising just how messed up it sounded as she was explaining. "I tried to go with them, but Charlie and Wendy can transport them far faster than I can keep up, and Dimaria still needs to be guarded," she said, glancing back at the hostage in the corner of the room.

Erza stared in disbelief, feeling her heart suddenly pounding in her chest.

Dimaria was laughing. Her toes curled backwards beneath her, her entire body shuddering as she laughed. A wild look rested in her eyes as she leaned forwards, pulling on her restraints and feeling empowered by the pain they gave her. "This serves you right for standing in the way of our armies!" she warned them. "Your friends won't stand a chance against the emperor!"

Lucy stood up, swiftly throwing her foot into the captives face as a powerful anger flooded her expression. "Don't you dare underestimate Fairy Tail," she hissed.

She seemed unfazed by the attack, already bound and beaten and feeling beyond the feeble outbursts of a small girl. "Randi will be avenged!" she spat back at Lucy, shaking in determination.

"Brandish isn't dead, she doesn't need to be avenged!" Lucy shouted back.

A grin flashed onto Dimaria's face suddenly. "Oh no?" she said, her eyes flickering suddenly. "She is not dead, but you have corrupted her into weakness," she said, her voice manic as she tilted her head. "She will avenge herself, however, and prove her loyalty to the emperor once more."

Lucy staggered backwards, wanting to believe that these were just the slurring of a mad-woman. "Brandish is… she's going to stop…"

"Why do you think she took the rain woman with her?" Dimaria sniggered.

 **Juvia feels pain**

Juvia could feel it inside of her. She could feel the huge pressure against her heart shuddering her feet to a stop even as she should have been running. She could feel her eyes growing wide, her breathing running short, as if she was feeling the terror of her own demise. "Gr-Gray-Sama?" she stuttered, holding onto her chest.

"Juvia, we need to hurry!" Lyon was yelling desperately, his anger suddenly stopping as he felt the air calm. He looked around himself, eyes finding the origin of the strange magical energy that had suddenly dropped into nothingness.

"Gray-sama…" Juvia whispered again, her eyes clouded in sudden tears. "Something terrible… terrible has happened…"

Meredy's arm was on her side, a hand on her back. Watching her, a thoughtful frown crossed her face. "This must be a side effect of my sensory link magic…" she realised, seeing the hurtful expression written across Juvia's face and feeling the familiar pulse of her magic. "Your love must have been close enough to regain a form of connection even after I broke it. You can feel what has happened?"

Juvia's eyes were clouded with tears. "It hurts… It hurts just like… It hurts just like losing him…"

Lyon and Meredy's eyes were wide, exchanging a glance that only the three of them could understand. "We need to hurry," Lyon said quickly, grabbing Juvia tightly and dragging her back to her feet, an arm around her as he forced her to take the next few steps forwards.

Brandish followed, her steps slow and deliberate as she made her way gradually back to her commanding emperor.

 **Natsu gets mad**

Natsu screamed as another flaming fist came down upon the dark lord. Gray had landed a few decent blows against the immortal but he had barely weakened him, but now it was time for the brothers to finally have the fight that they were always destined to have.

The dark energy reached out of Zeref's hand, aiming its deadly blow straight towards Natsu. Natsu pushed his hands out in front of him, panting heavily as he caught the deadly curse and pushed it back. Zeref's eyes grew wide. "No one… no one has ever…!" he exclaimed, barely able to believe his eyes.

Natsu tightened his hand into a fist as the last of the dark magic simmered into steam. The hand which clutched the strange magic was changing, shifting into spiralling red as the skin flaked away, revealing the bright and beautiful red dragon scales beneath. "You created me," he hissed, his voice more demonic than human as his eyes flashed, a flickering flame replacing his irises. "Don't underestimate me," he said.

 _"You have to show me the way!" Natsu exclaimed angrily to Lucy while in his dream-like state, begging him for the release when he was certain that he would die._

 _"I'm just a part of you, I only know what you know," Lucy told him as she clutched his hand tightly. "And right now you have hope. You know what you are, you know who you are, and you know what you are capable of. I believe in you."_

Natsu gritted his teeth, feeling the swirling storm of flame covering his entire body and erupting over the landscape, forcing the sky wizard and exceeds to plant their footing rather than find themselves thrown back by the radiating heat. "I am END. I am a Demon. I am a Dragon Slayer," he said, his cheek cracking as he spoke and revealing more of the scales beneath. "But this isn't the power that will defeat you. Fairy Tail gives me my strength. The people that I care about fuel every step forwards. I will protect the people I love. I will avenge those we have lost. FAIRY TAIL WILL BE YOUR END!"

His fist came hurtling down to Zeref, setting the ground itself on fire in a stream of dark fire. It was merciless, tearing through the ground in the new rage as the world exploded into fiery carnage.

Wendy's hand was over her face, panting heavily as she protectively threw her body across the still Ice Maker. "We need to get him back!" she called to the exceed, grunting heavily.

"Wendy, he's…" Charlie began, looking down.

"No!" Wendy screamed, "I refuse to give up! Not until every last drop of my magic is gone! I won't let him die!"

The fight between the Dragneel brothers continued to rage in exploding flames and crushing darkness. It was more than the Wendy could bear, sweat dripping down her face as she could concentrate only on keeping herself and the exceeds safe. Her leg was aching, movements nearly impossible even if she did decide that she would flee from the demonic shadows before her. Everything was blurring into a wave of heat and exhaustion and she felt herself drawing closer to passing out. "I won't… Give up…" she murmured, her eyes closing.

A shower of cool air suddenly shattered across the battlefield as a gleaming crystal tiger pounced forwards, jaws wide open to accept the stray fireball that was coming hurtling towards the exceed. The fireball flew straight into the creature's mouth, shattering cooling ice across the ground. Wendy blinked, her senses returning with the sudden relief from the overpowering heat, turning back to the caster. "Lyon-san! Juvia-san!" she exclaimed, watching the water and ice wizards skidding down the crater towards them.

"Gray-Sama!" Juvia shouted, skidding to her knees beside the Dragon Slayer and staring down at her beloved. Her eyes felt heavy with new tears, her hand on his chest as she felt his cold stillness running up to her heart. Her words caught in her throat, eyes wide as the crushing pain she had felt before suddenly exploded into real agony.

"You need to defend us!" Wendy shouted to them both, already feeling the tears from the horrified onlookers blocking their actions. "I need to concentrate!"

Juvia and Lyon's eyes locked together, nodding as Juvia rose back to her feet. She took her side by Lyon, her hands gripped tightly as she fought against the aching pain and fear inside of her. "Juvia will defend Gray-Sama with her life," she said, throwing forwards her water slicers.

The water magic slung through the air towards Zeref, only to disappear the moment it passed onto their battlefield. Juvia took a staggered step back, the look of shock written across her face. "What…?" she gasped.

"The heat must have been too much. Here," Lyon said, lowering his expression as his fingers twisted into the two-sided ice maker magic he dutifully taught himself in Ur's honour. In front of him, a huge iced snake bellowed forwards, hissing wildly as it dove forwards. Once again, the magic disappeared from sight, sending the shocked wizard once again staring in disbelief.

"I'm afraid I cannot let you interfere," Brandish said, standing upon the top of the crater as she looked down upon the scattered wizards below.

Their hate-filled glances instantly turned back to the Spriggan, curses on their lips as they stared up at the calm wizard threatening them. "You double-crossed us!"

The green-haired woman frowned lightly, having long since grown tired of explaining her alliances. "My loyalty has always been to Alverez, I have made this clear from the beginning. I know that I am no match against END and I see no reason to join this battle if only to get myself killed. However, I can stop you interfering as the dark emperor takes care of things."

 **Erza Marches Forwards**

Erza fell to her knees for the third time, gripping onto her staff tightly and planting it deep into the ground to keep herself from falling forwards. The expression of concern across Lucy's face only made her bare her teeth tighter, firing the determination in the pit of her stomach that was in danger of drowning into pain.

"Erza, are you sure you can…?" Lucy's words trailed off, recognising the look that Erza had written across her face. She could be in the arms of death and still power forwards with this look. Her friends were in danger, her family was in danger, her _brothers_ were in danger, and nothing was more encouraging or terrifying than that expression.

Erza miraculously pulled herself back onto her feet, using the staff to raise her body tall and proud. "I know I won't be able to do much," she admitted to Lucy, the surprise across the celestial wizard's face bringing a smile to her own. "I'm too weak to fight and I'm no match against Zeref in this state. However, Natsu is ten times stronger when fighting beside his friends."

Lucy's shock turned into a smile. "It's the same for me too," she admitted. "My friends will make me stronger. We will win this war."

 **Wendy Tries**

Wendy gasped, the sweat and blood mingling as she held her hands above her friend's body and felt the blinding light of her sky magic wash over her. She could feel the familiar power pouring down but felt none of the warmth beneath her fingers that she was used to receiving back, her heart racing quicker in fears she wouldn't admit she had.

"Wendy, you're pushing yourself too hard…" Charlie said softly, putting her hand on her thigh and gently trying to show Wendy her words were painful but spoken out of love.

Wendy felt a huge tug of exhaustion pushing the air out of her lungs, but still she continued. The tears streamed down her eyes unhindered, the painful resolution keeping her hands in place and the lost magic twisting through her fingers. "No! I won't give up! He can't be dead, he can't be!" she shouted above the chorus of her magical hum, her magic blasting into brilliant light. "Gray has always cared for me like an older brother. Gray-san, if you can still hear me, we need your courage!"

The older Dragon Slayer couldn't block Wendy's desperate plea as he tried to concentrate on his own battle, blocking the emperor's fists as it flew to his arm and sent him spiralling backwards. He cursed loudly, his hate filled glance burning through his fiery eyes. His body was more demon than human, more dragon than demon, but his mind was filled with only the thoughts of a Fairy. "You will pay for what you've done a thousand-fold, bastard!"

Zeref panted, his energy drained to almost nothing and clearly seeing that he was on the weaker side. No matter the difference in strength, however, there was one advantage he had. "Have you forgotten, brother?" he asked, straightening himself up to meet Natsu's eyes, monster to monster. "You cannot kill me."

"Don't call me that," Natsu growled, pouncing forwards and diving into the sky, huge black wings ripping out of his back and blazing in his terrifying might.

"Are you denying that you are my brother?" Zeref asked, curious why of all things in the middle of the battle he would pinpoint on a name. "I've spent so long waiting for you, Natsu. I spent so long trying to bring you back."

"You think that's what makes a brother?" Natsu hissed, hovering in the air above him as he pulled upon his flaming talons. "Brother's fight. They irritate each other and sometimes they even want to kill each other. But a brother is someone that you can trust with your life, with the life of everyone that you care for, someone that you believe in no matter what."

"Gray, please… Come back…" Wendy's tearfilled begs filled his ears, even as he plummeted to the ground towards Zeref.

"And you've just killed mine," Natsu glared, his eyes filled with burning hatred as he slammed his talons straight into the dark emperor, erupting the world into one final explosion of flames and anger.

 **A Stalemate**

Natsu swayed on his feet, glaring back at the crater that he had created and the dark lord that was inside. It smouldered and hissed angrily, but he could see no more movement from inside. Thankfully so, as he could feel his magical energy was down to almost nothing. He suspected that his brilliant final attack had been enough to knock back the brother, but the fact that he was still standing told him without a doubt that the immortal was still alive. It would take quite a bit more work than that to extinguish the life from him.

The entire battlefield had stopped, staring into the darkness and waiting for the outcome.

"Natsu…" The voice from the steam only confirmed his suspicions. The steam parted and a shadow of the robed man stood within the remains of the flickering fire. His steps were slow and filled with pain, and as his face finally freed of the clouds it was clear to see the sadness flooded his expression. "I'm sorry that it should come to this," he said, preparing the final spell of his own.

"Stop!" came a cry from the East.

Zeref's eyes grew wide, even before he had seen who it was. He could feel his hand wavering at the smallest and softest of requests, feel the pain in the tiny girl's call that he struggled to contend with.

Mavis was running straight towards them, her bare feet flinching with every step across the burning hot ground as she placed herself between the man she had once loved and the guild that she had once raised. Her arms held out wide, stopping and staring at Zeref. "You have to stop!" she challenged him.

Zeref narrowed his eyes, feeling something similar to the strong emotions he had years to defend himself from. "Mavis, move out of my way…"

"If you want Fairy Heart, then you can take it!" she cried out.

Zeref's eyes grew suddenly wide in understanding. Mavis was before him, as beautiful and defiant as ever, her arms outstretched and her small chest pressed forwards as her body glowed with the light of a long lost magical energy.

"Mavis, no, you can't!" Erza climbed over the side of the valley, staring down at the new decimation that was before her and trying to make sense of the unfolded terror. "We can't let Zeref have that kind of power!"

"I'm afraid that I have not been entirely truthful…" Mavis admitted, receiving a stunned silence from enemies and friends alike as she looked down, a sudden shame written across her face. "Fairy Heart is not the spell that you have been led to believe it is."

The battlefield looked upon the small illusionist, stunned to disbelief. "What are you talking about?" Natsu said impatiently. Even Zeref looked quietly concerned, not moving from the spot and allowing the tiny girl to make her way through the halting explanation.

"I wasn't lying when I said it has limitless magical energy, in the way that it is impossible to run out. Indeed, once it may have been used to fire a weapon a thousand times over, but over the years I have come to realise the magical energy has been twisted into one single use."

"So… it's not a weapon?" Lucy asked.

Mavis kept her eyes pinned upon Zeref, realising that he was understanding far quicker than anyone ever could. "It is a weapon, with one sole purpose. To create mortality from immortality."

Natsu took a staggered step back. The entire battle, the lives lost and those that had been broken had all come down to this moment, to this magical energy which unlocked everything that both friend and foe had desired. "If you can make him mortal than just do it already!" he exclaimed, his hands tight fists.

Zeref understood. He kept his eyes on Mavis, tilting his head gently to the side as he contemplated the difficult decision that rested in the Fairy Tail founder's hands. "If you use that magic on me you will immortal forever," he summised.

Mavis trembled, her lips quivering as she stared back at Zeref. "You wanted this!" she cried out. "You wanted to be mortal! You've already killed too many people here, this is the only way to stop it! So take Fairy Heart and become mortal!" she announced, tears falling down her eyes.

Zeref stepped closer, everything he had wanted in front of him. All of his plans seemed to be unfolding in ways that he simply couldn't have imagined, the chance to die resting in the body of the woman that he loved, his brother's strength standing behind him. A chance for mortality wasn't just to die, it was to live, it was the ability to have life for the few short years before he could finally claim his well-deserved rest. "You could have done this sooner," he said, taking another small step forwards. "You could have unleashed this power when we had you in your guild. You could have spared so much. Why didn't you?"

Her eyes sprouted with new tears. "Because I don't want to live without you."

The roar of Acnolgia shook covered the land.


	5. Fairy's Regret

**Name; Fairy's Regret**

 **Genre; Angst, Tragedy (warning; Character Deaths. Duh, I'm writing it.)**

 **Background; I have been excited to write this story for so long. I was so excited that I decided to start it without having an ending in mind, but that was fine. I could work it out. But I hated it. I hated writing every chapter, I hated the brainstorming, I hated the brick walls that I was put against while writing this mess. I wasted so much time and effort trying to make this work and in the end... it is now an Unpostable. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Introduction**

"Oh Natsu…" Lucy shook her head with the softest of sighs on her lips. She tucked her blond hair behind her ear with one hand while the other propped up her favourite dragon slayer, feeling his weight against her. "And Happy calls _me_ heavy…" she murmured.

"That's because you are heavy, Lucy!" the exceed told her helpfully.

"No one asked you!" Lucy yelled at him, glaring while looking utterly shocked at his insult. She was even less impressed as she felt Natsu's body shiver under her with his own laughter, forcing the celestial wizard to resist the urge to drop him in the street.

The celebrations of finally returning to their old guild after a long seven years away had felt endless. They had drunk and laughed and fought into the small hours of the morning for almost seven days in a row, boasting loudly of their victory at the Grand Magical Games and exchanging their favourite stories from years ago. It filled her heart with warmth day after day and night after night, but only now could she see the constant partying was finally taking its toil against her friend. "I can't believe you actually drank that stuff…" she half-laughed, not sure if she was supposed to be looking at him with pity or seeing him as the idiot he clearly was.

"It wash a dares…." he murmured under his breath, putting a hand through his pink spikes.

Lucy rolled her eyes. She had heard his 'dare'…

 _"This smells funny… Ice Block, drink this!"_

 _"No way, Flame Brain, you drink it!"_

Somehow it had all resulted in her carrying one very drunk dragon slayer home. "Honestly, I don't know why I bother…" she muttered to herself.

"Hey Loosh…?" he slurred, his footsteps growing slower as he leaned heavier against the blonde. "I don'ts…. Feel sho good…"

He was swaying and nothing that the celestial wizard could do would stabilise him. She wasn't surprised that he wasn't feeling well but her eyes grew wider as she realised that his entire body was beginning to glow. There was an unnatural warmth under her fingertips as she grasped onto his arms, magical energy tingling against his now golden skin. "N-Natsu?" she gasped, grasping onto him tighter. "Natsu what's happening?!" she asked. Even the exceed looked confused and scared, putting his tiny paws on his shoulder as they both tried to shake an answer out of him.

Natsu could say nothing, having no real answers to give and unable to even open his mouth in case the nausea took control. Everything was blurring before him, the blinding white light spinning the world. He could feel himself falling, sinking into a strangely comforting magical pool of energy.

In a moment, all three were gone.

 **Part 1**

 **Chapter 1**

The floor was soft but cold. Natsu could feel his fingertips pushing deep into the ground as his eyes scrunched tighter shut, fighting the waking pain that would no doubt shortly follow. He could taste the alcohol still at the back of his throat, a nuzzling instinct that suffering usually came after such a wonderful night, as if he had borrowed the next day's happiness. The amount of joy that he and his friends had been through made him feel he had not only borrowed the next day's happiness but the one after that and the one after that. His body would certainly punish him for this as soon as his eyes opened.

Beside him he could hear a soft pawing against the ground and even softer fur brushing gently against his hand. "Not yet, Happy…" he murmured. "Five more minutes…"

There was a quiet giggling, not the one that he had expected to hear. It was familiar yet sounded as if it was ringing from a distant memory, one that he had affectionately buried deep into a painful part of his heart. It filled him with happiness, her joy was infectious, but a frown still rested on his face. Slowly his eyes began to open, widening to the blurred image of a white-haired girl that focussed more with every blink. "L… Lisanna…?" he croaked, pulling himself up.

As he did so he noticed several things. Firstly, and the one that he was most thankful for, was the fact that he did not have a hangover. He was quite safe, somehow, and felt it was only appropriate to thank every god of alcohol. The second thing he noticed was that he was outside, at least in some sense of the word. The ground beneath him was made of dirt, leaves and sticks, and the only thing that covered the sky was a crudely made thatch roof. It was enough space for two children, but with two teens and a cat the space was a little tight. "Our 'home'…" he said, recognising the workmanship of their den away from the guild. Everything about it just seemed perfect but he had no idea why they would have returned here after so many years. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd come here and stepped inside the short walls, especially not with Lisanna beside him. "What are we doing here…?"

Lisanna giggled again. "Silly Natsu…" she said, reaching over and pulling a stray leaf out of his pink spikes. "Don't you remember? You said that you'd help with my winged takeover and then you fell asleep."

He didn't remember any of that at all. He remembered the Grand Magical Games, remembered lifting the trophy for the adoring fans of Magnolia, remembered copious amounts of alcohol as they regained their old guildhall… Through all of that he could barely even remember Lisanna.

"Hey Natsu, is it just me or do you look a lot bigger?" Happy questioned suddenly.

Natsu turned to his exceed, his eyes growing suddenly wider. "I'm not bigger you're… SMALLER!" he exclaimed, reaching over and picking up the blue cat by the paws and trying to stretch him out. "What's happened to you? Why are you so tiny?" he said.

"Natsuuuu that hurts!" Happy squeaked.

"Natsu!" A very panicked Lisanna suddenly reached out and grabbed the blue cat from the dragon slayer, wrapping Happy into a ball against her chest and looking back at him in disbelief. She cuddled Happy closer, her hands protectively over her feline child with a reprimanding look. "What do you think you're doing to our Happy?"

It was then that Natsu realised that Lisanna too looked much smaller. Her cheeks were round, her eyes wide and filled with a childlike innocence he had not seen for years. Not since before he had lost her. Then there were the things he couldn't see, hear or smell. There was the feeling inside his chest that still wanted to hold onto her, that made his heart race seeing her without any fear. He, too, had an innocence and he glanced down at his hands. They were smaller, his entire body smaller and more slender than before. Even sitting down, he could tell that he was slightly shorter than her, a fact that would change in the two years that she disappeared. "I'm… I'm small too…?" he asked.

Lisanna's face curled into concern. Natsu wasn't meeting her eyes for a long time, staring at his own body, his surroundings and his exceed and trying to make sense of some mystery that she just couldn't understand. "Natsu…" she breathed lightly, reaching over and putting a hand on his forehead. "You're warm… are you feeling OK?"

"I'm a fire dragon slayer, I'm always warm!" he bit back, finally looking at her. He could feel his breath being taken away as he stared at her large eyes. There was something perfect about the way that she looked right now, something that matched seamlessly to an image he had treasured and worshiped and dearly missed. "Lisanna…"

She buried her face into a frown. "Let's go for a walk, Natsu," she said eventually, giving him a small smile. "Maybe the fresh air will do you some good."

* * *

Lucy groaned, clutching onto the feather pillow beneath her fingertips tighter. There was a rattle and the familiar sound of heavy curtains skimming across the track, and a less than pleasant feeling of the morning sunlight resting on her cheek and urging her to wake. She groaned and gripped the pillow tighter, trying to block the light out of her view. "Just five more minutes, Happy…"

"Ms Lucy, you really must wake now."

The dream world and reality seemed to be merging the closer that she came to consciousness, listening to the soft murmurings and the unforgettable urgency to Ms Spetto's breathing as she fluttered around the room. There was the musical chime of a tea set against a silver platter, a low creak as the wardrobe as opened and a rattle of the grand freestanding mirrors being rolled into the room. Everything felt familiar, as if she was watching an old photograph replaying but able to reach out and touch every part of it. She could smell the breakfast, feel the soft cotton of her far smaller curves filling her pyjamas, hear every murmur of her loved housekeeper. It had to be a dream.

Her entire body shivered under her silk sheets as her eyes crept open slowly. It was the exact shade of deep fuchsia she had stared at for years. Her fingers raced across the soft folds as it shimmered under her touch, remembering the way that she had demanded her parents for countless copies of the bedding so she could never be without her favourite design. She remembered the way that her father had turned away, not wanting to belittle himself with such trivial matters as a child's favourite colour, but she had got what she wanted.

"Ms Lucy… are you crying?" Spetto asked, stepping closer to the side of her bed and watching with wide eyes.

She glanced up, only then feeling the way her eyelashes stuck to her cheeks every time she blinked. She pushed herself up, staring at the four walls that she had felt like a caged animal inside. For years, she had tried to gather the strength to leave this place and now she was somehow back inside, floating outside of the realms of reality but seeing everything from her memories in painstaking detail. "Spetto… what's the date today…?" she asked.

The old lady seemed surprised not only by the sudden question but the grave tone with which the lady spoke. She wrung her hands together as she watched the young celestial wizard, trying to decide if she had come down with a sickness overnight. "It's September 17th, Lucy," she said, and in case she somehow didn't believe her, she pulled the magazine from the silver platter. "You see, your latest copy of Sorcerer Weekly came out today!"

Lucy glanced back over to the pages within Spetto's hand. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she stared down at the front cover, Mirajane and Erza taking the centre-stage with their shining armour and fiercely passionate expressions, both looking as terrifying as the other. These weren't the faces of two women reaching their early twenties, however. They were both far younger and as Spetto said, the date very clearly said that this was September 17th. Except this was the year X784, almost three years prior to their Grand Magical Games victory - ten if you included their seven-year sleep.

The faces on the paper reflected the ages of the S-Class wizards just as she would have imagined. Lucy had rarely seen the dominatrix that was the Mirajane from years before and it always caught her a little off-guard when she thought of the sweet barmaid she had become. Even Erza seemed to have a cold confidence in her eyes that had melted away into kindness over the years. Lucy took the magazine into her shaking hands. She remembered this issue as it had been one of her very favourites. A full ten-page spread on the leadup to Fairy Tail's approaching S-Class trial, including the details of the current S-Class wizards, last year's trial, their last victor and the predictions of who would be nominated and who would succeed. She was not surprised to see Natsu and Gray were suggested, though the editor was keen to point out that they were both possibly too impulsive and reckless to be the next face of Fairy Tail. "Well, some things never change…" she whispered to herself, scanning briefly through the rest of the names and faces. There were a surprising amount that she didn't recognise, some who had even joined other guilds in the last few years and many more that had separated during the seven year absence, but her curiosity grew as a black silhouette with a question mark took a large portion of the page. "I suppose this will be the year that Mystogan won…" she thought out loud.

"No, no, no, this is just too weird! This isn't real!" She cursed herself quickly as she threw down the magazine and covered her ears. It was all just too much for her to handle as she reminded herself that time travel wasn't real, she was currently in the year X791, a Fairy Tail wizard and any moment now she would wake up to the sounds of her friends once again breaking into her home.

"Ms Lucy, your father…"

Her eyes flew open. If this was a dream it was a convincing one, one enough to make her breath catch. Her father was alive in X784. She glanced up to Spetto, expecting the elderly lady to break the bad news and suddenly retreat back into reality but, although shaken, she seemed steady. Everything felt far too real to be a dream. Perhaps this really was happening, perhaps she had been sent back in time.

Her entire body shivered as she pulled herself from the bed, catching a glance at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were rounder, her hair much shorter and her chest weighed a little less. She didn't want to admit that maybe Happy was right and she had gained a little weight over the years, but that was completely normal for a growing woman, especially when the majority had been on her chest. As she walked closer to the mirror she put her hands on her curves and gently pinched her side. Pain. So, this wasn't a dream, at least. The explanations were running short and she was now juggling between time travel and her own insanity. Both seemed equally plausible right now.

Just in case she wasn't insane, the celestial wizard nodded back to Spetto with a wide smile even as tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. She would get to see her father today, one last time. "I want to look my best."

 **Chapter 2**

It didn't take long for Lucy to remember why she escaped this world and the outfits that she had spent years trapped inside. The corset made her feel like she couldn't breathe and more than once she convinced herself she would pass out, but Spetto insisted both on her perfection and on their time limit. She spoke quickly of the meeting that Lucy's father was traveling to that morning and how he would be absent for a long time. Now that Lucy knew how close her father really was to his financial ruin, she could hear the smallest hints and flutters in Spetto's voice as she spoke of the important partnership deals and their hope for the future. Lucy didn't care much about the money but she knew how heavily the stress of losing it all had weighed on his aging body. Her heart beat faster, wanting at that very moment to rush out and spend every last moment she could with him before he disappeared once more, but Spetto insisted that she stay put until 'decent'.

The final result was a beautiful princess with a twisted red dress, long velvet gloves and a dazzling tiara. She was the epitome of a regal beauty, despite the flushed red face and racing out of her room with all grace forgotten.

"Dad!" she called, running into his familiar office. Everything inside smelt of him, felt of him, so close that she could almost touch it. It was empty. She bit her lip, gripping onto the doorframe and pushing herself away as she continued to run down the grand hallways. "Has anyone seen him?" she asked desperately to anyone that would listen, running to the next aid even before the first could speak a word.

"He's just going into the carriage now, Ms Lucy, hurry and you might catch him!"

She lowered her head and ran quicker, holding tightly onto her dress and cursing her heels. Her entire body felt weaker than it had in many years and she despised that greatly. She knew in the future she would be stronger, faster and braver and right now she could only hope to conjure some of those strengths into her younger body. "Dad!" she called, watching as the man began to disappear into the carriage.

He stopped, staring back at his young daughter with a slightly furrowed brow. "Lucy?" he questioned, a slightly scolding tone against her name.

Before he could say any more she ran forwards. Her eyes were blurred into tears and her arms extended out, throwing her entire body against his and burying herself there. This was her father. Now she had no doubt about it. Everything about him seemed more vivid than even her dearest memories. This was his warmth, his smell, even the way that his entire body stiffened at his daughter's touch. He may not have been the best or most caring father in the world but he was hers, and she held on as tightly as she could. "I… I miss you…" she whispered.

His eyes grew wider at the sudden assault, caught between pulling himself back into the carriage and the small woman that had latched her arms around him. He could not see her tears but he could feel her body shudder with no clue as to why. He could feel the tightness of her arms over his chest. He simply didn't know what to do. The father stood dumbfounded for a more few seconds before awkwardly clearing his throat and giving her a gently pat against her shoulder. "Come now, I'm going to be late…" he said.

She shivered as she felt his low voice ripple through his chest. She wanted to absorb every part of this memory, no matter how true or false it was, wanted to remember the way that his breath caught against his thick moustache and the way that he always stood tall no matter how vulnerable he felt. She held onto him for every last second of pulling away, eyes scanning over the gentle giant and finally looking up to his eyes with her own tear-filled gaze. She gave a brave nod. "I love you, dad…" she whispered.

He frowned, unsure how to take the sudden confession. It had felt like years since he had heard those words from his daughter, and years more since he had spoken them back. He had no idea how many more it would be before he could finally understand their weight. "Be good, Lucy," he told her, putting his hands on her shoulders once more but this time to gently move her backwards as he leaned back into the carriage. "Don't get up to trouble while I'm gone."

She nodded, ignoring the tear that was now rolling down her cheek. Her hands clasped together when they were freed from her parent. Plastering a smile on her face, she whispered one last time "Goodbye… Dad…"

* * *

Lisanna could only watch in confusion as Happy and Natsu continued to point out all the remarkably normal landmarks across Magnolia. It seemed that every step they took was followed by a 'and this is still here!' or a 'wow I can't believe that is so old now!' and laughter between the two friends. Lisanna couldn't understand it, wondering if there was some kind of inside joke or new prank that she had not yet been opened up to yet. It was by far not the strangest thing that either of them had done, however, and she was just happy to be included in their new little game, even if no one had quite explained the rules to her yet.

While the dragon slayer and exceed were happy to wander aimlessly, Lisanna had her own path to take. They avoided the guildhall despite their hearty objections as she insisted that she needed to go to into the town and gather supplies first. There would be plenty of time to re-join Fairy Tail for the evening's celebrations and general atmosphere later. "I'm not entirely sure what I'll need to take…" Lisanna admitted as she led them forwards, her eyes wide as she glanced at the stalls and all of the beautiful goods that they were trying to push towards the Strauss sibling and her companions.

Natsu was distracted, pointing out every shop keeper that he recognised and commenting on how much younger each one appeared when he finally focussed on Lisanna's absent statement. "Hm?" he tilted his head to the side. "Take for what? Are you going somewhere?" he asked finally.

Lisanna hummed to herself as she leaned down to the nearest jewellery stall. This wasn't anything required but it certainly caught her attention all the same. "For my first S-Class mission with Mira, silly!" she gasped, clasping her hands together as she smiled so widely her eyes closed. "I can't believe you forgot!"

Natsu didn't forget. He couldn't ever _ever_ forget that day. Suddenly the stalls seemed haunting, the shadows of the darkening sky threw themselves down into the alleyways of market-stalls. His smile vanished. Every ounce of happiness from the day had washed away when he remembered where he was, when he was, staring up at the image of the woman he'd cared so deeply for and realising that she looked so perfect in this moment because this was his last memory. This was the last time he woke up by her side, this was the last time that he had taken her to the market and the last time it had been only the three of them. Even after Edolas, even when she had returned from their two long, painful years of grief, he had not been able to bring himself to do these things with her. Even after she'd returned he had not been able to look at her without some distant pain he smiled so hard to hide even from himself.

"Lisanna. Don't go."

She blinked. In the half decade that the two children had known one another she had never seen this look on his face. She'd never before seen his eyes sparkling in a determination brewed from such a deep pain. It made her take a half-step back, not certain why a creeping fear was crawling across her skin. "Natsu… what are you-?"

"Don't go," he said, taking huge leaping steps forwards and holding onto her arms as tightly as possible.

He was impossibly close but she felt no comfort from staring into his wide eyes, shivering under his heated touch. "Natsu you're… scaring me…" she said suddenly. Was this jealousy? He had been uncomfortable with her going on this mission from the start but after a few soft words and reminding him that Erza would no doubt take him and Gray on an S-Class mission of their own soon he had seemed much more confident. There had been some glimmers of worry, but they all knew the ferocity of the devilish S-Class wizard and her brother, both of whom were growing stronger every day. This came from something more raw and terrifying. Natsu's hands seemed to grip harder by the second, unflinching until she gave a response. "I-I have to go…!" she whispered, not sure what else to say though he was making it clear it was the wrong answer. "Mira and Elfman are-HEY!"

With her small yelp Natsu had picked up the tiniest Take Over wizard and slung her over his shoulder. "Sorry, Lisanna!" he said. "This is for your own good…"

 **Chapter 3**

As soon as Lucy had said goodbye to her father and he had disappeared onto his vastly important diplomatic meeting, she was sharply reminded of another of the many reasons she left the mansion. She was outstandingly bored. She had never felt more alone within the four walls, unmoving for hours while afraid that she would burst out crying once again at the simplest reminders. When she finally regained some of her old strength and determination, however, she knew she could not sit and wait for answers. Somewhere there was a Fairy Tail, her Fairy Tail, and she wasn't going to sit around in beautiful clothing for them to come and save her. Gone were the days of being the damsel in distress staring at the horizon for a prince charming. There was no such thing, and if there was, he was certainly _not_ punctual.

Firstly, she set to work on her outfit, riffling through all of her dresses and garments for something a little more practical. Though she would attract attention regardless, if things ended up in a fight – which in Fairy Tail was an almost certainty – she didn't want to be left in a fancy frock and killer heels. The closest thing she could find to a 'normal' outfit, however, was her horse riding gear. It looked far from casual but with a few amendments here and there it was at least easy to walk around in and far more practical in a pinch.

The staff watched her in confusion and concern as she rushed around her home eagerly trying to plan her trip. They begged and pleaded with her to see sense, or at least to see a doctor, but she shook her head every time and refused to stand still. She offered them all her warmest wishes and ordered her carriage regardless, promising them all that she would see them soon – a promise that she knew that she could keep with a certainty only a time traveller had.

The streets of Magnolia filled her with joy and comfort. Her eyes grew wide as she walked the familiar route, sharply reminded of the very first day that she had come here. She smiled to herself, amazed that she hadn't even recognised the 'Salamander', but then it was clear the real Natsu didn't lend himself well to that kind of attention. That day had brought her such happiness and chaos that it was hard not to think of it with a smile, despite how long it had taken her to do so, and she bristled with excitement as she thought of walking back through the doors of Fairy Tail and introducing herself for a second very first time.

For every part of her that had been weak when first entering Fairy Tail, however, she knew that she had only half of that strength in her current form. Once again her hand rested against the golden and silver keys and lovingly felt their energy through the pouch. Aquarius, Lyra, Crux and Holligium. Taurus she would discover the following year and Cancer was still in Spetto's care where he would remain until she was ready to leave home for good. She felt lost with only one zodiac key after months of having almost a full collection, thinking of each of her close comrades and-

"Well hello there, beautiful."

She screamed instinctively. She had been so lost in her own world that she had barely even noticed the light spirit's presence beside her. Every muscle in her body tensed, suddenly face to face with one of the spirits that she had been dreaming about. "L-Loke!?" she gasped, heart racing in her chest.

"I see my reputation proceeds me," he said, smirking charmingly as he took her hand and gave it a soft kiss, casually winking at her through his darkened glasses. "It's quite alright to feel overwhelmed. If you are going to faint you can do so in my arms."

"Uh…." Lucy wasn't entirely sure how to act at the blatant flirting, wondering how he usually managed to make women fall head over heels with this kind of behaviour. It was then that her eyes grew wider, realising that this man had absolutely no idea who she was. Not only that, he was just a man, a _mortal_ man. This was one year after his exile from the celestial realm and two years before he would once again be given a key and a master. She took a small step back. "I, uh, I'm fine! Really!" she said, holding out her hands defensively.

"Oi, Loke." Lucy blinked, recognising the low rumbling voice of the Ice Maker even before she turned. Somehow, she just _knew_ he would also be naked. What she hadn't expected was for Cana to be standing by Gray's side, both looking impatient. "Are you coming or not?"

Loke either didn't hear or didn't care, practically throwing hearts out of his eyes as he glanced at the beautiful blonde before him. "I would recognise an angel like you in Magnolia if I'd seen you before. Tell me, do you need somewhere to stay the night?"

Lucy recoiled, pulling her hand away sharply. Part of her was tempted to throw in his face that if she was his master he should be treating her with more respect, but then his friends didn't know that he was a celestial spirit in this time. She could feel her heart sinking, remembering from her books that in time travel the number one rule was to change as little as possible. Well that was going _swimmingly_ well so far, she thought to herself with a groan, trying desperately to think of a way of avoiding her old friends and keeping her appearance as unremarkable as possible.

"Oi oi, Loke," Cana growled, before tilting her head to the side. "I didn't think celestial wizards were your type."

The spirit physically froze. His eyes grew wide in disbelief, as if Cana had somehow revealed that Lucy was a monster from the depths of hell. Although Lucy understood the reason she couldn't help but be a little offended as he suddenly flinched away, practically running back to Cana and Gray's side. "Aha, my mistake! Bye!" he said. "Cana, Gray, we're going. NOW."

Gray looked in confusion, scratching the back of his head as he picked up his pace after his strange friend. Cana smirked to herself proudly, glancing back at Lucy briefly and giving a small wink. "Welcome to Fairy Tail," she grinned widely before turning back to the boys, running after them. "Yo, Perverts! Wait up! I still have to tell you about this S-Class mission!"

Lucy found herself blushing, unable to move as she stared after the three friends. She would have never guessed that the three of them would be so close, wondering absently if this was a chance encounter for the three of them or if, as she suspected, they were an actual team. She'd never heard Loke mention either Gray or Cana, though she'd seen Gray close with both and remembered the S-Class trial where the two boys had teamed up together. She'd been completely in the dark about their friendship then and felt even more so now. She instinctively reached down to her keys as she promised herself that she would question Loke about it when she returned home.

Another confused frown rested on her face as she looked down at the pouch, and the keys that were safely hidden from sight inside.

"PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!"

Lucy glanced upward, drawn away from her confusion as she heard yet another familiar voice from the guild. Her first instincts were to run and hide as she remembered her badly taken advise to not chance anything in the past. She had come to Magnolia for a reason, however, and that reason had been for the trusting arms of the guild she cared for in her own time. Without them she would be completely lost. As it happened she didn't even have much of a choice regardless; the vision of Lisanna slung over Natsu's shoulder kicking and screaming to be put down had frozen her in disbelief.

"Hey, Luce," Natsu said calmly as he walked past her, ignoring the yelling of the Take Over mage and the confused glances he received from the people of Magnolia.

Lucy just blinked as he walked straight past her. It took more than a few seconds to realise that Natsu wasn't supposed to know who she was, no one in Fairy Tail was, not yet. "Natsu? Happy?" she called back to them, tilting her head to the side.

Natsu stopped suddenly, obviously coming to the same conclusion quickly as he turned back around and ran straight back to the celestial wizard. "Hey, you're Lucy!" he said, as if it wasn't the most obvious statement. "Wait, if you know who I am three years ago… Have you always known who I am?!"

Lisanna was thrown into silence, staring too at the newcomer that Natsu seemed to be very familiar with.

"No, you idiot!" Lucy yelled back at him, "I'm from the future too!"

"Ohhh….!" Natsu's eyes grew wider, and then finally his grin. "That's awesome! I thought me and Happy were the only ones!"

Lucy looked at them both in disbelief but with a lingering comfort. She had to admit that she too had been afraid that she'd been lost in this time travel by herself, but knowing that she had Natsu by her side now filled her with comfort. "What… what are you doing with Lisanna?" she asked cautiously, watching the struggling girl who was not looking at her with the same recognition as the dragon slayer.

"Natsu put me down this second!" Lisanna yelled, throwing a kick to the distracted pink-haired boy's abs.

The dragon slayer seemed to finally remember that the he was holding her with the sharp reminder, dropping her down as she took several steps back. As soon as he dropped Lisanna, his attention kept on Lucy. "Oh right, you can help too!" he exclaimed. "Luce, we need to stop Lisanna from going on the mission tomorrow!"

"Mission?" Lucy blinked at Natsu, trying to interpret the determination that now rested in his eyes. "What mission?"

"The mission that'll kill her, it's tomorrow and we need to make sure she can't go on it!" he said suddenly.

Lucy's eyes grew wider in realisation, taking a half step back as she put a hand on her mouth. "Tomorrow? You're certain?"

Natsu nodded, the memory firmly imprinted in his mind in the least pleasant of ways. "Yeah, everything about this day is right. We need to-" he turned around, eyes glancing back to the white haired mage. Or at least where she was supposed to be. "Lisanna?!"

Lucy's fist slammed into the back of Natsu's head. Though it did very little damage she felt it fully represented her irritation. "You don't just tell a girl that she's going to die tomorrow!" she exclaimed, running forwards. "Lisanna! Lisanna!" she yelled out, her desperate calls quickly matched by both the exceed and the dragon slayer. Lucy just couldn't imagine what must have been going through the Take Over mage's head right now. She didn't know how she would react knowing that she was going to die. Her and Natsu had spoken in such a clear way that it didn't leave much doubt, they had both seen the future and neither of them had even mentioned that that Lisanna was going to be okay. She may have died to the rest of Fairy Tail but she survived in Edolas, but now she was running around Magnolia with only her own mortality to fear. Cold terror washed over Lucy as her heart bled for the poor girl. It wasn't fair for her to hear such a thing, especially not in the way that Natsu had so inconsiderately blurted it out. "Lisanna!" she called out again, hoping and praying the poor girl would at least have the sense now to save her own life.

So much for not changing history.

* * *

Lisanna ran. Her eyes grew wider with every step, heart suddenly pounding in her chest as she replayed the conversation between the dragon slayer and the stranger in her mind. She had only caught half of the conversation and wasn't entirely sure she believed all of it, but more meaning sunk in than she was willing to admit to herself. Her legs shook. Her head swam. Tomorrow the Take Over wizard would die.

Her entire body felt like it would give out with every slam her feet made against the ground. At first she didn't know where she was going, guided only by her panic and the growing misfortune that she knew would take place. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to think about dying. She thought about her friends, her guild, her loving brother and sister. She saw their smiles as she closed her eyes, imagining them replaced with frowns and tears. She didn't want to die. She saw again the look on Natsu's face when she told him that she was going on the S-Class mission, remembered the tension hung dangerously in the sudden silence. She would not die tomorrow.

She slammed her front door shut, pressing her entire body against the wood as if it would somehow block out all fate. She was still panting heavily and despite having stopped she was struggling to regain her breath. Tears were running freely down her face and she clutched her short white hair tightly. She'd never before felt so afraid, never had such reason to feel fear. Natsu had always told her that he would protect him, but somehow, he had failed. Somehow, he _would_ fail.

"Lisanna?" Elfman peered down the corridor and straight to the front door. He had his familiar soft kindness in his eyes, a stark contrast to the devilish woman that was standing behind him. At the sight of their youngest sibling's tears both were quick to action. "Lisanna, what happened?" he pushed, stepping forwards.

"I can't…" she suddenly stopped her words, eyes wide. She knew that she would die and she didn't know _how_ she would die. If the mission was so dangerous then she couldn't just exclaim that she wasn't going to go with Mira and Elfman. Mirajane had already threatened to pull the mission from them several times, yelling that she would go alone they improved their strength and basically acted as her slave for a month. The Strauss siblings had all been so excited to take on the quest that she had no doubt if she didn't go her two family members would go without her. She couldn't let one of them die in her place. "M-Mira… I don't feel well…" she murmured, putting a hand on her forehead.

Mirajane exchanged a sharp glance back to her younger brother, and then stepped forwards. She placed her hand on Lisanna's cheek and forehead, her touch slightly rough as she examined. "You don't have a temperature," she said.

"No-no but I feel…. I feel just awful…" Lisanna mentioned, and she truly did. The news had twisted knots into her stomach, the apprehension conjuring a pain that felt very real. "I don't think I can go t-tomorrow… Mirajane I don't think we should…." Her words faded. Suddenly she was falling forwards, all energy drained from her bones, feeling her brother and sister's strong arms as she fainted.

 **Part 2**

 **Chapter 1**

When Lucy next awoke, it was in her own apartment. She had a smile on her face even before she opened her eyes, able to feel the soft brush of her pillow against her cheeks as the lace curtains blew gently in the breeze. Her window was open, as it always was, an invitation to some of the less polite members of her guild but she did little to close it. She didn't want to block out any amount of light into her life.

With a yawning stretch her arms pushed up to the sky, small pyjama top rising with her morning breath. She felt as if she had slept for an age. As she opened her eyes she began to realise that that very much might have been true. She looked around her room, finding absolutely nothing remarkable about it but the memories of how she had returned home were lost on her. She could remember running through the town and screaming Lisanna's name, their desperation to save the small girl from losing her life to dive into Edolas, but waking in her own bed had almost convinced her that was just a dream.

The only evidence to the contrary was that something just felt _wrong_. She looked down at her hands, as if her palms and nails could somehow give her the answers. There was a weakness inside her, not overly different to that which she had felt when waking in her old bedroom in the grand mansion, but far less tangible. Every time she tried to grasp what was different, or what was _missing_ , the thoughts seemed to run away from her.

Her heart caught in her throat as she heard a sudden muttering from the other room. _Natsu_. She frowned, but while she was unable to remember if she'd invited him into her home or whether he'd invited himself via an open window she found herself unable to instantly feel anger. Ignoring what she now considered a dream, she vaguely remembered that both she and Happy were trying to protect Natsu from his impending hangover – a hangover that from the sounds of it had finally caught up with him. She was a little smug as she walked back through, arms folded across her chest.

"Lucy…." he whimpered, falling off the sofa with a heavy thud as he tried to reach out to her. "Why is the room moving…?"

He was hopeless. He was useless. He was severely hungover. Perhaps some of the alcohol had been even stronger than she thought; she hadn't exactly been sober herself, which would explain her own weakness and the strangely vivid dreams. "Well, I did warn you not to touch strange drinks," she told him with an eyeroll, moving over and trying to pull him back onto the sofa.

He groaned loudly as her arms tucked underneath his shoulders, hoisting him up back onto the comfortable furniture. Everything was spinning, but at least if it was going to spin he wanted to be on something soft. "Lucy… did we save… Lisanna?"

Her eyes grew suddenly wide. "L-Lisanna…?" She was in complete disbelief. She could not have believed such a thing was even possible but Natsu sharing her dreams was too much of a coincidence. It was real! "I-I'm not… I'm not sure," she admitted, not only unsure of what they had done but what they should have done. Every piece of writing and every story she had ever read all pointed to time travel being exceptionally dangerous, typically following the chaos theory, more commonly known as the 'butterfly effect'. She couldn't remember exactly why it was called this, but she knew what it meant – changing the past could lead to disastrous consequences in the future. They had seen that all too recently with the Eclipse Gate.

"I'm not sure if we'd even know. That was nine years ago, and Lisanna was never really dead…" she continued frown, trying to imagine joining the Fairy Tail guild if Lisanna had been there. She was told months later how much she reminded so many of her nakama of the fallen girl and she had always secretly wondered if they would have given her such a warm reception if that had not been the case. Seeing the way they had become instantly close to the likes of Juvia and Wendy she had assured herself that the warmth of the guild's welcome was Fairy Tail's true heart, but she still suspected Natsu was more welcoming to her than anyone.

"I don't feel any different!" Happy said as he spread out his wings, diving into the air and doing a quick and excitable backflip.

Lucy smiled back at Happy, glad to see that he was his normal cheerful self. With he strange feeling inside of her and couldn't quite agree, but while she wasn't sure if that was from the time travel exhaustion or from something deeper she didn't dare say it out loud. "What about you, Natsu? How do you feel?" she asked him.

"I feel… sick…" he whimpered, burying his face into the sofa.

Lucy sighed. "Right…" She'd almost forgot the pale look written across the dragon slayer's face, the exact same expression he always seemed to have when they were moving long distances in vehicles. "You know, I remember hearing that time travel is supposed to feel quite nauseating. I suppose it must be much worse for a dragon slayer. And a hangover," she said. She was going to let that explanation slide completely. "I'm sure you'll feel much better after some food! How about we go to the guild and grab some of Mirajane's cooking for breakfast?"

Natsu managed to rise his head, almost as if he could smell the bacon already. "R-right…" he agreed, somehow gathering the strength to pull himself back up to his feet.

Now that he was finally starting to help himself Lucy was only too happy to help. She was also eager to find her way out into the real world so that they could start to put some of the pieces together. She was almost too excited as she quickly helped drag him out of the flat, wishing her landlady well and promising her that she would get their rent on time this month (though she strangely seemed to have no screaming back in disbelief this time). She dragged him along the riverside, waving to the men who warned her not to stand too close to the edge and thanking their concern, dipping through the familiar paths and routes as she always did with the dragon slayer by her side.

"Everything seems normal!" Happy exclaimed as he kept a short distance behind the pair, looking into all of the windows and staring at the names of the streets as if they would suddenly change.

Lucy nodded, having realised this herself too, though she was still a little worried. "It all seems fine so far," she agreed, though the walk had not returned any of her lost strength or the nagging feeling that she was forgetting something. As per usual, her hand went to her pouch, lending her spirit's power as they wandered the world lost. "Perhaps there really wasn't any change made. It could have just been a dream," she guessed. "I hear that people can share dreams sometimes, though it's very rare."

"Rarer than time travel?" Happy asked.

"Considering Eclipse, I'm not sure anymore…." Lucy had to admit, pulling an awkward face as she stopped in front of the Fairy Tail guild, pushing open the huge guild doors.

It was a very quiet morning in the Fairy Tail guild. Natsu seemed to suddenly snap out of his delirious state as he looked around the halls, his eyes surprisingly sharp as he paid the closest attention now. He could see many familiar faces but not nearly as many as he had expected and there was something else confusing his senses. "It smells wrong…" he muttered under his breath as they took the few steps up to the bar.

Lucy looked back at Natsu in confusion. He seemed to be ignoring the kind waves and greetings, a strangely serious frown on his face. "Smells strange how?" she questioned.

Natsu just couldn't place his finger on it, but something felt different and that alone was reason for him not to like it. This was his guild, his Fairy Tail, and even when things could be significantly improved it would take a long time for him to grow familiar enough to see their worth. The smell was strangely more pleasant than usual, but it only made him frown more. "I don't know, just _different_ …" he said slowly, looking around. What was worse was that amidst all the missing scents that made his guild special, he also couldn't smell the tiniest whiff of Mirajane's cooking. He looked around, stopping before they came to the bar and realising that a white-haired woman was sitting on the wrong side of it. "Yo, Mira," he greeted with a wave. "How about some grub?"

The white-haired woman turned around, her eyes flashing dangerously bright to the dragon slayer. She looked borderline demonic with the wild fury in her eyes, as if Natsu could not have said a more insulting question. "Do I _look_ like I work here?" she sneered at him, pulling herself to fully height above him. Her heels made the tall teen even more dominating, leather gripping her body in all of the appropriate places and very little else but there was something more intimdating that sexy about both her expression and her image.

Lucy found herself squealing and ducking behind Natsu, but the dragon slayer seemed to barely even notice the difference, tilting his head to the side as he took a few moments to work out what was so different about the Take Over wizard. "Huh? What are ya on about? Of course you work here," he said.

"N-N-Natsu…" Lucy gripped onto Natsu's shoulder tightly, creeping further behind him but quickly wishing she had chosen a safer shield. "I don't think Mirajane agrees with you…"

He continued to tilt his head to the side, receiving the threatening glance from the kind-hearted barmaid. It took a long time for him to realise that although they were one and the same person, the woman standing before him was nothing like the Mirajane they had only seen the night before serving them drinks and warning them against drinking Cana's lethal concoctions. It didn't mean that she wasn't familiar, however, and that was where the difficulty in his memories lay. This was Mirajane in her full glory, the same venomous violence that she had before the disappearance of her beloved sister. "You're… not a barmaid anymore?" he asked, finally understanding.

"What do you mean 'anymore', punk?" she demanded of him, grabbing him by the scarf and dragging him upwards.

"I-I-I think he's just a little out of it this morning!" Lucy tried to defend him meekly, though there was no doubt if the Strauss sibling looked her way she would be the quickest to run out of the door. "Right, Natsu?"

Natsu wasn't sure that he wanted to flinch away from a fight – curiousity raged through him at the prospect of beating the S-Class wizard in her full strength, but another question was lurking. "If you're running the bar… then who is?"

Both Lucy and Natsu turned in unison back to the counter at the sound of high heels clicking against the polished wooden floor. Long legs led upwards to an incredibly short black skirt and white pinafore, the cute maid outfit almost breaking beneath volumptious curves. Long red hair shaped around her breasts as the S-Class requip wizard held onto the silver tray with her fingertips.

"Erza… Erza has replaced Mirajane?!" Lucy couldn't help but shriek in disbelief. This world had officially turned upside down. Mirajane was terrifying and Erza was the sweet barmaid. It sounded too crazy for her to even begin to believe it, certain now that they had shattered time beyond repair.

The redhead turned at her own name, her eyes wide and curious. Then the familiar glare fell back on her face, the fierceness that only Erza could hold as she ignored the glasses she held and swooped her tray against the back of Mirajane's head. "What have I told you about leaving him alone, asshole?" she glared back at her rival.

"I take it back…" Lucy groaned. Same old Erza with her same old violent streak.

"Who are you calling asshole, freakshow?!" Mirajane hissed back, replacing her grip on the dragon slayer's scarf and instead yanking against neck of her bursting outfit, ignoring or not caring that most of the men of the guild were now watching and waiting for a beautiful disaster between the two women's outfits.

"Well that explains why I can smell so many strawberries…" Natsu thought out loud, now sure that he could smell a variety of strawberry cake, strawberry pancakes, strawberry cookies, strawberry cheesecake and many more delights that only Erza could stomach in such quantity. "Yo, have you seen Lisanna anywhere?"

Erza blinked in surprise as she looked back at Natsu, temporarily forgetting her heated argument against Mira. "I was assuming to meet with the three of you."

"Ohh, ah, yeah, you've just reminded me!" Natsu lied quickly, grabbing Lucy by the hand and taking a few tactical steps away from the two vicious women. "C'mon, Luce, we gotta find Lisanna before she thinks we've forgotten about her!" he said, dragging Lucy out before she even had time to squeal.

* * *

Lucy was still rubbing her arm after Natsu had yanked her violently out of the guild, her mind reeling as she thought about what she had seen. The guild had been much quieter than it had been even before the seven-year break and Mirajane's appearance had been shocking but it still left Lucy in doubt. She had to agree with Natsu, something had just felt _different_ and she was once again met with the feeling of losing something, her eyes drifting down to her keys for the strength she lacked. "Do you think that it's possible?" she thought out loud, her words carrying away in the growing winds. "Do you think that we might have… changed the past?"

Natsu kept walking, thinking to himself and, like Lucy, trying to decide exactly what had felt so different about the guild. It wasn't just the strawberries that had smelt different, it was almost as if the place had a different atmosphere just from stepping into the four solid walls. "I guess we'll find out when we find Lisanna," he shrugged.

"Natsu, please try to be a _little_ more sensitive this time…" Lucy sighed, already knowing it was hopeless.

"What do you mean by that, Lucy?" Natsu asked.

"I mean you can't just go and tell someone she's died! It's just not done!" Lucy screamed back at him.

"Ohh…" Natsu said, finally remembering the message that Lucy had been trying to give him before. A smile plastered back onto his face. "Well, we can't exactly tell her that now since she's OK!"

"Aye!" Happy agreed.

Lucy decided it was more than hopeless. She was arguing against stupidity and somehow still losing. Her heavy sigh was quickly drowned out by the sounds of Natsu and Happy's stomachs growling in unison, and even Lucy had to hold onto hers as it painfully reminded her that they had left on a mission to get food and returned empty handed. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get some food on the way…" Lucy said, wondering if she would be able to see any more differences as they reached the market.

"I'd kill for some of Mirajane's cooking right now," Natsu mused to himself unhappily, hands behind his head as his stomach moved his feet forwards.

"She always has so much fish…" Happy agreed between the grumbles of his stomach. "Natsu, do you think that if we changed time we might never be able to eat Mira's cooking again?"

Natsu twitched uncomfortably. "We'll have to put up with endless strawberry cake…"

"Aye..." Happy's voice wobbled unhappily, imagining a fish placed on a bed of strawberries and doused in sugar, a playful Erza in a pinafore dancing over her meal proudly.

Natsu stopped as he was suddenly coated in darkness. There had been nothing threatening about the sights and sounds around him, almost something comforting as he felt soft hands wrap themselves over his face. A playful giggle was against his ear as the small white-haired girl leaned closer. "Guess who," Lisanna's voice spoke softly into his ear.

A beaming smile quickly replaced all apprehension of a guild filled with the redhead's favourite deserts. "Lisanna!" he spoke quickly, taking her hands as they dropped down and brought the light back into his eyes. As he turned he could see her again, the gentle smile across her own face. "You're not dead!"

Lucy and Happy both collapsed to the floor in the certainty that their friend was a complete fool. "That didn't take long…" Lucy whimpered, receiving a wobbling 'aye' from the cat beside her.

Lisanna just blinked back at the dragon slayer, confused. "Not… dead?" she asked, not quite able to bring a step away from him as much as she couldn't lean closer. It felt as if she stared at him for an eternity, waiting for all of the pieces to slip into place. Natsu was smiling at least, his beaming grin from ear-to-ear that brought her and the rest of the guild joy even through their darkest times. It seemed even brighter than it had in years. Everything about him seemed brighter and lighter and she felt her stomach dropping.

"Yeah, you're OK!" Natsu grinned confidently as he ignored his companion's reactions. "You look just the same as you did but I guess you were always OK though, huh…" he frowned in thought, remembering that in this fact that both worlds would be the same and he was actually no closer to the truth than he'd been before.

She could feel her heart skipping beats inside of her chest, eyes widening as she looked back at one of her oldest and dearest friends. She glanced to Happy and Lucy, her mind reeling back to that day so many years ago. "Natsu, Lucy, Happy…" her voice wavered, feeling as if her knees would give out at any moment. "Do you finally remember saving my life?"

The three stared at Lisanna in disbelief. Lucy rushed forwards, her heart racing and her voice reaching a high-pitched squeal. "Did we do it? Did we change the past?!" she demanded of the small girl.

Lisanna hesitated, but slowly nodded as she brushed the hair gently behind her ear. Lucy was screaming something wildly in disbelief in a voice that only dogs, cats and dragon slayers could hear, running around as she bounded between happiness and complete terror. Natsu didn't move an inch, staring at his old friend with a growing smile on his face. He'd saved the day. He'd stopped the sadness and the grief before it had even started. Edolas could not have his Lisanna, she was his victory prize and he couldn't wait for the heavy feeling in his chest to finally disappear.

 **Chapter 2**

"You mean… I was never dead?"

Natsu shovelled the food quickly down his throat, somehow still managing to utter the words between his chewing "Not really! This is really good, thanks Lisanna!"

Lisanna blushed, looking at the dragon slayer as he munched and chewed on hundreds upon hundreds of jewels worth of food for his hearty breakfast. She certainly didn't regret offering to buy them all a meal after hearing their stomachs rumbling but she just wished that they would be a little more considerate of her purse. "A-Anytime…" she said with a half-smile.

"You were in Edolas the whole time," Lucy continued, having the respect and good upbringing to not speak to her friend with food in her mouth. "The entire of Fairy Tail thought that you were dead for two years."

"Oh, I see," Lisanna said thoughtfully, taking the straw of her smoothie and swirling the green liquid. "So when you and Natsu saved my life, you thought that I was dead?"

Natsu swallowed a large load of food, pushing back the one plate and pulling forwards a second. "No, we knew you were alive," he explained. "I just didn't want you to leave again."

"From what I can tell, losing you was hard on the entire guild," Lucy said slowly to Lisanna, knowing how hard it must have been to hear the sorrow that she had brought on her friends and family. "We didn't exactly have much time to think about what we were doing. You know they say that time travel is dangerous. Who knows what other changes have happened so far," she wondered aloud.

"Aye, Natsu said that the guild smelled different!" Happy said with a mouth full of fish.

"That's right!" Lucy said, remembering how different she had also felt since waking that morning. The coffee and pancakes weren't lifting her strength the same way that she had hoped, only waking her senses more to a feeling of forgetfulness. "Mirajane seemed very different too."

"She didn't seem that different to me," Natsu shrugged.

"Are you crazy?" Lucy's eyes almost popped out of her head. "Everything seems so different. I can't believe that Erza was running the bar instead!"

Lisanna put her hand over her mouth, giggling and having to stop herself from taking another sip of the healthy smoothie. "Erza isn't running the bar, she's just covering for me."

"You mean we won't have to put up with strawberry fish?!" Happy asked quickly, his eyes lighting up with the sudden ray of hope.

Lisanna shook her head, looking at Happy with a motherly kindness. "Not unless you really want to, no," she told him. "I really can't imagine Erza running the bar in any reality," she shuddered. "But then I can't imagine Mirajane running it either. I remember seeing a Mirajane who ran the bar when we went to Edolas…"

"Wait, you went to Edolas in this timeline too?" Lucy asked, her eyes wide.

Lisanna nodded, swirling the green drink again as she smiled back at the memories. "I imagine that we must have gone on a lot of the same adventures that you did," she realised aloud. "We've just won the Grand Magical Games, only a few days ago!"

"Us too," Natsu said, his face once more filled with food. "And then the Eclipse gate."

"Were you in the games too?" Lucy asked curiously. It was difficult to tell what 'us' meant when Fairy Tail was such a unity and the crowds of their nakama played such an important part to their victory, but a Lisanna that had not spent two years in a world without magic would undoubtedly be even stronger.

Lisanna confirmed her suspicions and nodded. "Mhmm. We changed around quite a bit but for most of it it was the three of us and Erza and Wendy."

"Wait, you replaced _Ice Block_?" Natsu asked, already sniggering. "What about Fairy Tail Team B?"

Lisanna looked thrown back, eyes widening a little as she looked between Lucy and Natsu. "I-… there wasn't a Fairy Tail Team B. Unless you mean the reserves? There was Mira and Laxus and a few others that helped…"

Lucy shook her head, trying to be helpful. "In our timeline, Fairy Tail had two teams join, which merged into one for the final few days. Our Fairy Tail A Team was Natsu, Erza, Gray, me and Wendy, though she was also replaced with Elfman for the first day. Did you really not have any of that?"

Lisanna pushed back the table as she suddenly began to stand. A serious look flashed in her eyes, a sudden seriousness that did not dare shelter too much emotion. "There's something you need to see."

Lucy, Natsu and the exceed exchanged glances. The change in the tension in the room was clear even to the most oblivious Fairy Tail Mage. Lisanna was quickly pressing the money into the hands of the waitresses and before anyone could object her hand wrapped tightly against Natsu's as she began her march.

"Lisanna, what is it?" Lucy asked, struggling to keep up as she stormed forwards, Natsu curiously following.

She didn't answer.

"Lisanna you're acting really strange…" Happy remarked as he flew over their heads.

Again, the take over wizard said nothing, continuing to march east through the heart of the city centre.

Natsu watched with wide eyes, still expecting the find differences even in the faces of the strangers he passed. The only thing he could see was surprise as the tiny white haired girl led along the athletic young man with luminescent hair. He was used to stranger looks. Everything else was identical. The streets took the same paths, the shops sold the same goods, the cathedral loomed above all growing larger as they drew closer.

He lost his grip on her hands as he realised just where they were being led. She didn't miss a heartbeat, instead grabbing onto his wrist and turning her leading into dragging. His footsteps were heavier with every movement closer, his heart racing faster as they moved to the side entrance of the ancient building. "Lisanna…" he warned her. He didn't want to be here, even now. His instincts pulled him back even as every logical part of his mind told him that the beautiful childhood friend was not buried here.

She said nothing, carrying on through the headstones and freshly picked flowers.

Suddenly they were all brought to a stop as the take over wizard halted in front of the place of her own gravestone. This time it was not printed with the Strauss name, however.

 _Here lies Gray Fullbuster_

Time hung in silence. The words were unmistakable, etched deep into the stone, a decade of erosion only just beginning to make their mark against the crisp chisels. The ground before it was untouched, grass growing unheeded from what lay far below. The four Fairy Tail mage's eyes were pinned to the new and terrifying difference before them.

"Is this a joke?" Natsu asked, glancing back to Lisanna. He was so looking forward to punching the ice maker right now, yelling at him for once again pretending that his life was something to belittle. He told himself this was exactly the sort of thing that Gray would do, the stupid and cruel prank he could expect from someone that he disliked so much, but every part of that trail of thought was completely false. It wasn't Gray's typical behaviour, it wasn't a prank, and he certainly didn't dislike him. That was why when Lisanna didn't answer right away he knew the answer. He knew that she was not finding this any easier than he was. He just couldn't bring himself to admit it.

"No…" Lucy suddenly breathed, her eyes brimming with new tears. "No no no no…" The celestial wizard's eyes had veered away from the stone that Natsu and Happy had been looking at and were not tracing the one to the left. It took Natsu a few seconds to realise that her eyes were not just faded but staring at a second tragedy unfolding

 _Here lies Loke of Fairy Tail_

Lucy took a step towards the second grave, her hand once again quickly to her pouch for comfort although this time there was a new desperation. She emptied her keys so quickly they all fell onto the floor from her numb fingers and she crouched to her knees, picking each one in turn. Every failure made her more desperate to find the elusive golden key, now finally realising what had been missing the whole time, what had been drawing upon her sense of weakness.

Natsu stared blankly between Lucy and the two graves, the reality taking too long to sink in. Beside him, Lisanna was looking back at Lucy's reaction more than confused. As far as she was concerned, Lucy had never met either of the two fallen wizards, and her reaction to her keys seemed inexplicable. The answer was now clear, they had had no idea these graves existed or the story that they told. Natsu's eyes were once again back to the Take Over wizard's, quietly asking "Lisanna… what happened?"

Lisanna swallowed hard. "It was a training exercise years ago," she said, her voice small and her hands wringing together. "Cana, Loke and Gray had stolen one of the S-Class missions from the guildboard, but they'd underestimated. The boys were both killed and Cana, who was the one who had stolen the quest and convinced the other two to join her, was exiled."

"I don't have it," Lucy breathed, looking at the keys that she'd laid out neatly in front of her, hoping that one would suddenly jump out and prove out. "I don't have his key. He's really not here, Natsu," she looked up at him, tears rushing down her cheeks. "He's really-"

"We can fix this," Natsu said quickly, gripping his fist tightly and looking as if he was about to march into a long and difficult battle. "We can undo the spell, we can put it back to the way it was. Lucy, how did you do it?"

"Do… do what?" Lucy asked, her breathing calming as she saw the hope that the dragon slayer projected wildly.

"The time travel! How did you send us back?" Natsu asked quickly, staring at her.

Lucy blinked. She couldn't speak. Her mouth hung for a second, staring at the dragon slayer and realising that every bit of lingering hope was shattering before her eyes. "Natsu, I didn't do anything, you did."

"What do you mean I did?!" Natsu barked.

"You did," Happy said quietly, reaching over and putting his tiny paw on Natsu's leg. His eyes, too, were filled with thick tears that had been making small puddles in the ground beneath his feet. "You were glowing and we grabbed onto you."

Natsu recoiled, taking a staggering step backwards. There would still be something to fight, something to fix, something to do. He couldn't stop for long enough to think of what was in front of him or how it made him feel or why there was a burning pain inside of his chest. He just wanted to leave this place and run as far as his feet would carry him, away from the painful words etched deep into stone. "Then I just have to remember!" he said, determination resting in his eyes even as his voice wavered and he took another step back. "I have to remember how we did it and then we can undo this!"

"But Lisanna…" Happy said sadly, looking up to the kind-hearted woman beside him.

"Lisanna came back, dammit!" Natsu hissed, but then he took a leap forwards. "That's it, isn't it?! They'll be in Edolas, they would have been in Edolas like you were there, weren't they?" he said, suddenly grabbing onto Lisanna's arms tightly.

Lisanna's eyes grew wider, a fear she couldn't hold back as he stared at her with his fevered determination and denial. "Natsu, there was no one in Edolas from our world…"

"Then you missed them!"

"Natsu, they would have returned with the rest of the magic users like Lisanna had," Lucy said quietly, standing slowly as she collected her remaining keys together.

His head was swimming as he tried to think of new ways to break whatever was inside before it consumed him. The reality was starting to sink in and every moment it began to feel more real. ' _Here lies…'_ No, it was a lie in itself. Even if there was the slightest hint of truth, he would fix this. _'Loke of Fairy Tail'_. They didn't even have a surname for him. Of course Natsu knew the true reason why but it felt disrespectful. Lucy had saved Loke, Loke would not have gone so easily. ' _Gray Fullbuster'_...

His thoughts stopped dead, his chest turning cold.

"We can fix this," he promised with a strangled voice.

 **Chapter 3**

It didn't take long for Natsu to pinpoint what exactly about the guild was now different. There were smells that had not lingered in the halls for many years now. The distinctive scent of the ice maker that naturally repulsed the fire wielder was only the second most obvious, the first being strong liquor. It was a mixture of several types of drink which, while still sold in plenty, had rapidly declined in sales and spillages since the card Mage had been exiled. Cana may not have had the strongest scent herself but her drink was particularly poignant and she had spent more time in these halls than almost any other member of the guild. There were others missing beside the three but while most of the guild were making the most of the influx of missions from the success of the games it was difficult to tell.

Loke's absence was more of a physical one. His smell was missing but it had barely been there since moving to the celestial realm. Lucy's hand never left her pouch, as if afraid that suddenly another key would slip away from her grasp and that she would have to face the loss of another friend. She felt both exhausted and alone, no matter how much she was asked she couldn't bring herself to explain exactly what was wrong. The guild had quickly learned of their difference but she refused stubbornly to tell Loke's secret while he was unable to tell it himself. This Fairy Tail still believed he was a ring Mage, and there was more than one suggestion that Lucy had been caught in his charm, which was a lie she had little reason to challenge. Natsu had said he would fix things and she had no doubt he would find a way.

There was not a glimmer of uncertainty in the dragon slayer's words as he described the world that they would rekindle. His focus was not on the differences or the people they had lost but instead he told stories and intently listened to those around him. By the end of the night he had challenged every member of the guild to a fight. No matter how many times he was knocked down he would get up again, fighting harder and faster with every swing until he realised he _needed_ this.

The evening was still young when he left for the day, giving some half-hearted excuse about wanting to get up early the next day. His hands still itched, however. His fists clenched and unclenched with every step as he pointedly ignored Happy's concerned looks.

Their home wasn't even in sight by the time that Natsu's fists struck the first target. A huge and ancient tree that was in no way in their way took the brunt of one of Natsu's hardest punches. He stopped dead in his tracks, hand pressed against the hard bark and waiting for his breathing to calm.

Another of his fists flew through the air, followed by another, each making contact against the hard wood and splintering the bark with bloody knuckles. He needed to hit something and his favourite target was gone. His breathing quickened as another strike hit against the tree. He remembered every single one of his nakama that he had fought and every time that he had been downed. It had been too easy. He was weaker. With every punch against the solid tree he felt his strength was not what it had been.

His new audience did not make him feel any more comfortable with this fact. His fist stayed against the bright white wood that had cracked through the broken bark, pressed hard against the solid object to stop it from shaking violently. He should have been filled with confidence and happiness at the companion's presence, but instead he found himself desperate to push these uplifting emotions outwards to her. "We're going to fix this," he promised yet again, pushing his hand deeper into the wood. "We're going to change all of this and put everything right again, the way it should be. We're going to bring them back."

The air seemed to shift. As the dragon slayer turned back around slowly he saw the tall woman's poise shifting, a flicker of something in her eyes that disappeared so quickly he could only see the new cold reflection staring back at him, so devoid of emotion it left the redhead looking almost disappointed. "I see," she said, her voice just as cool as her expression. A gust of wind blew between them, capturing the beat of silence. "Do you have a plan yet?"

He did not. He didn't have anything at all. 'Plan T' was useless when there was no physical enemy to take down. The frown was clear on his face, the sheer determination that would usually only ignite in the heat of the fiercest battle resting against his features. "Not yet," he said. "Lucy said she was working with Levy to research time travel. Then we attack," he said, his fist against his hands.

Erza paused, watching him carefully. She did not move for some time, staring at the fierceness in his eyes with none of her own to mirror back to him. Then, slowly, she nodded. "Good luck," she said simply, turning on her heels and beginning to walk away.

Natsu's frown turned into one of surprise, not even allowing her to take three steps forward before suddenly asking "Aren't you helping us?"

Erza stopped obediently. If anything, she seemed to flinch to a halt. She met his eyes as she glanced over her shoulder to him, every word controlled. "No, Natsu, I won't be helping you this time."

His eyes opened wide, his jaw hanging loosely open as he stared at Erza in disbelief. This was Erza, who had been in his team for years, his friend for almost a decade, and supposedly one of the closest friends to the lives he was trying to save. She had been the one to bully him into working with his fallen nakama in the first place, both as a training partner while they were children and as an actual team when they both became older and Lucy joined the guild. Now she only had an uncaring look in her eyes. "What do you mean you're not helping?!" he roared, taking a step forwards and ignoring the way that Happy was shivering under his anger. "How can you not help with this?! Don't you know what's at stake here?!"

She turned forward once more, the smallest of sighs against her lips as she held her hands both out in front of her. Her beautiful and dazzling light materialised around her fingertips, spinning orbs of magic forming two weapons. She held onto them both tightly, a concentrating frown against her face before she swung back around and threw one against Natsu's chest.

He was instantly winded as the thick wooden shaft threw against his abs, slamming him back against the tree. The wooden pole landed in both of his hands awkward, but before he could yell at the unexpected assault or question the strange gift, Erza was explaining. "I will give you the same opportunity I gave you before, Natsu," she said, her voice clear and commanding, pressing every one of her words deep into his memories. "I won't stop you if you want to take on this fool's quest, but if you want my help you have to earn. If you can land one strike against me, I'll come with you."

He pulled himself slowly back to his feet, pushing himself off the tree and staring back at Erza in disbelief. She had no hint of humour in her expression, looking more like a titan than a human as the wind brushed back her beautiful scarlet hair. "You're saying if I hit you _once_ , you'll help?" he asked, waiting for the catch.

She nodded stiffly.

He gripped the wood rod tightly in his hands. It wasn't a weapon he knew particularly how to use but like almost every part of his instincts, he would learn through fighting. A small smile appeared on his face, his bright fangs flashing as he placed himself into position. "OK," he said, sweeping the stick through the air. "You better get ready to help us!"

Erza did not return the smile, sliding her own weapon across the palm of her hand and listening to the soft brush of wood against her gauntlets. She said nothing, meeting his eyes. His first attack was quick but predictable, her own counteraction faster as she threw her pole into both hands, using it to not only meet his downwards slash but also to send him sliding back through the ground. The dance had begun.

Chapter 4

"Who would have thought that there were so many different types of time travel" Levy asked as she pulled back yet another page, unveiling yet another complication to the string of time.

"I remember looking up some theories on time travel for a book I was going to write," Lucy said with a sigh, leaning back and doing her hardest to try and focus on the pages she had been staring at for hours. "The difficulty is that there are plenty of types of time travel magic, but to do the kind of time travel we need is… incredibly rare."

Levy looked back at her curiously. "What type of magic is it that you think we need?" she asked, tilting her glasses up.

 **Notes on Chapters that were never written...:**

 **Lucy and Levy talk and Levy asks about Lucy's relationship to Gray and Loke**

 **Natsu comes in after fighting Erza again. The others explain this is an old tradition of theirs.**

 **Natsu rants about Erza not wanting to help Gray and is generally bitter he keeps losing**

 **Talk about trying to do time travel**

 **Chapter 5**

 **Natsu is determined to take down Erza and recruit her once and for all**

 **They fight and Natsu realises that Erza is crying. She explains that she was the one to recover the bodies and that she knows if she starts she won't be able to handle failure. She starts to explain that giving up is important but natsu boinks her on the head with the stick while she's distracted and 'wins'.**

 **When they go back to the guild Lucy, they hit a rainstorm. Confused but carrying on they go into the guild, discovering that a gift has been left.**

 **Loke is summoned.**

 **Chapter 6**

 **Loke explains what happened the day of 'S-Class' and why he couldn't return. First person chapter?**


End file.
